Good news for those who do a placement year as part of their degree: employers value it. That's the key finding of TANYA FROST's university dissertation.
Higher education is continuing to change and adapt. Its very purpose and role is being questioned, and concerns have been voiced that traditional educational programmes are failing to address the needs of both students and industry. An increased emphasis on skills and employability are driving these changes and vocational degrees that incorporate work experience with academic study are becoming a major feature of higher education today. PR degrees are no exception, with many of those offered in the UK running an industrial placement.
But does this mean that the placement is a successful and enjoyable experience for students? For most, hopefully yes. The placement is often a student's first real experience of the PR industry at close hand. Most students relish the opportunity to get stuck into live projects, and enjoy the buzz of being part of a successful team. Contacts are made and often jobs are secured beyond graduation. But for many, high expectations can soon turn to letdown, as they are given the kinds of tasks well below their abilities and expectations.
With this in mind, my study aimed to assess just what value the placement year holds for BAPR students at Bournemouth University, and whether these aspirations were shared by placement employers themselves. Do students feel the placement prepares them for future employment? And do employers feel more inclined to employ those with work placement experience? I asked 46 post-placement final year students and a representative sample of 24 placement employers for their views.
Benefits from the placement
I first asked students which elements of the course they thought would prove most valuable upon graduation, and an overwhelming 98% said it would be their placement. This is compared to media relations skills (78%) and the dissertation (27%). When asked if the placement adds value to the PR degree, a whopping 98% agreed. Why is this? Students identified particular skills that the placement helped develop: communication skills, time management and media relations skills.
When asked which benefit of the placement was most important to them, 44% of students said greater employability and a higher salary on graduation and 28% said PR experience. Worryingly for the degree course, nobody thought that the most important benefit was to allow students to integrate theory and practice.
Still, these are generally encouraging results for those PR degrees that run a placement, because the students feel that they are becoming more employable as a result. In sum, the practice element of the degree, through the placement, is clearly highly regarded by the students. But students appear less than convinced that the theory element of the degree will be quite as useful.
What employers seek in a PR graduate
When asked what the main attributes they look for in a graduate, PR employers chose communication skills (57%), followed by personality (17%), writing skills and experience in the PR industry (both 13%). Theoretical PR knowledge, research skills and high degree classification all scored zero. So employers place higher emphasis on personal attributes and skills rather than academic knowledge. This is no surprise really, and reflects trends well beyond the PR industry.
So communication skills and personality count when trying to get employed in PR, as they arguably should. But having work experience can help you here according to the students we talked to. Most agreed that the placement really does enhance their communication skills and increased their maturity and confidence.
Are placement students more highly regarded?
When asked which graduate they would employ if they both had the same degree in PR, 83% of employers would take a sandwich graduate over one without placement experience. What's more, although employers did not think that sandwich students would tend to start in a higher position with a higher salary than their non-sandwich colleagues, they did recognise that they are more likely to progress than full-time graduates. Far from being irrelevant when it comes to recruitment, it seems that employers genuinely value the placement when it comes to choosing graduates.
To sum up the findings, most employers valued hands-on experience over academic achievement when it comes to recruitment. This shouldn't alarm students of PR courses that don't include work experience, as communication skills and personality are still key factors that employers mention. But the findings do suggest that PR placement students gain transferable skills and competencies desired by PR employers. The placement thus fills the needs expressed by PR employers, providing the types of graduates they are looking for, and better preparing students for employment in PR.
These findings are not particularly controversial or unexpected, but they are still reassuring for the PR courses that do offer some sort of industrial placement as part of the degree. So if you were undecided about whether to take on an optional placement next year, maybe I have helped make up your mind.
- Bournemouth University graduate Tanya Fox is now PR officer at Panasonic UK. She was assisted in her dissertation research by Media School lecturer Dan Jackson
hi ! my name is hassan and i am a french student in Nantes in France. I ve just read your dissertation and i find it very interesting. I am following courses in order to pass my Master in international businnes. So i wonder if you could give me some adresses of companies to carry my work placement?
Posted by: hassan | October 03, 2006 at 11:49 AM
hi ! my name is hassan and i am a french student in Nantes in France. I ve just read your dissertation and i find it very interesting. I am following courses in order to pass my Master in international businnes. So i wonder if you could give me some adresses of companies to carry my work placement?
Posted by: hassan | October 03, 2006 at 11:49 AM