Siddhartha Mukherjee: PR course curriculum needs an immediate revamp!

By Siddhartha Mukherjee

While PR needs PR has been my cry out to one and all in the industry for years now, “Catch them Young” could be a great fortification towards this movement. Budding campus students, our industry’s future, carry a phenomenal potential to change the face of what the Industry doles out to its service takers and how it is perceived by the external world. However, a basic problem continues to plague majority of the education institutes and universities. The problem is that the time allocated towards teaching PR and the relevance of the course content being taught need to be examined on priority!

I am not sure what the satisfaction level of recruiters – across corporates and PR firms – are about the quality of candidates. For sure, it is not a 10 on 10 or even a 9 or 8 on 10. The reason for this is that the course curriculum needs to be revamped or overhauled.

The reason for poor satisfaction levels of recruiters about candidates could be permutation of the following:

a)       Weightage of Time allocated towards teaching PR in the overall curriculum is abysmal

b)       Course content, topics and the books are either archaic or have no relevance to India

c)       Getting on-ground feel of the industry through interactions with Industry seniors/professional is very rare or not holistic

d)       While I have met amazing, very up to date faculty in some, but by and large, faculty in many of the campuses still need to wake up and smell the coffee. What they teach and how they teach will need an immediate revamp

Some key/basic attributes a “Futuristic” Recruiter of the PR Industry will look forward to in a candidate:
1. Has complete knowledge about Brands and its Communication Techniques
2. Understands Media, its changing technologies and its influence on Publishers and Users
3. Understands the dynamics of Content and Advertising Management
4. Is comfortable with the world and the subject of Journalism
5. Is a Numbers Person: Values the importance of Research, Measurement and Audit
6. Understand PR’s role in the overall context of Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Planning and Buying
7. Has basic soft skills like: Writing, Oratory and Presentation Skills
8. Understands Business Management and its components
9. Can evaluate Brands in context to Social, Cultural, Political and Economic matrix
10. Has a great archive of examples and understanding of brands built and sustained through PR and other Tools

What can be done for education institutes and universities to replace the existing course curriculum with that which is concurrent to today and the future:

1. At this stage, Education Institutes and Universities are in their comfort zone, unaware of the harm they are inflicting on the student’s future and the industry at large. To pull them out, our PR Industry Body should conduct road shows orienting the Academia of the changes needed both in Time allocation and the course content.

2. However, before that, our Industry Body will need to put together a certified template of prescribed course curriculum all Institutes and Universities need to transition to.

Talent will make the industry grow. However, the content and importance we feed into the student during the campus days will decide on which direction our Industry will head to and at what speed.

“PR needs PR” will get a major impetus if academia and ionstitutes are addressed with the need to change!

Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior PR industry professional and currently Senior Vice President, Eikona – Earned Media Planning, Audit and Advisory. The views expressed here are his own.