The NextGen of PR Talent Is Right Here At Leeds Beckett University

Yesterday (24 January 2022) I spent an enjoyable afternoon on the Leeds Business School campus helping to judge pitches from 11 MA Public Relations and Strategic Communication teams with support from MSc Marketing students.

Given that many of these students had only begun their postgraduate studies last September (2022) at Leeds Beckett University, it was impressive to see how far they had come in such a short space of time to deliver competent proposals against a tough BtB travel industry brief.

For someone like me who spent years as a board director responsible for travel, tourism and transport accounts in Europe for a global public relations (PR) agency, it was remarkable to see how polished the students’ presentations were. Their look and feel, were in the main, great and the creativity shown was up there with the best I have seen in my 24 years of teaching.

Indeed, if truth were told, I would have happily put my name to those pitches that MA Public Relations and Strategic Communication graduates Patricia Araujo and Teela Clayton and senior lecturer Rudiger Theilmann selected to go forward to the client today.

These students did justice to themselves, their course, the lecturers who taught them and the university and the industry they hope to serve once they graduate.

Praise too to the many students who – given their multinational status – who made the determined effort to get into the campus before the new semester starts to deliver these pitches in person. It does make a huge difference to meet face-to-face after so many months viewing material via Microsoft Teams.

Last year my academic partner Carmel O’Toole, PR course leader at Sheffield Hallam University and myself – we both serve on the Council of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) - put together a research proposal on how academia and PR practice could work closer together and how the industry could help answer the question of where the next generation (NextGen) of talent is coming from - given the recruiting pressures on the industry.

On the basis of what I saw yesterday, we need not be worried about the future of our industry in that regard. It will be in the safe hands of the PR stars of tomorrow. It just needs the PR industry to seek out the budding talent that’s available to them at universities like Leeds Beckett and Sheffield Hallam.

Many in the industry recognise the advantages of working with universities, especially ones who offer strong vocationally based courses. The PR industry can help future young talent and support their business by linking-up with this young talent. Yes, it does take effort and commitment, but as companies like IKEA have found it can bring huge rewards.

On a personal level as some who this year will have spent 50 years in this industry, I have found that engaging with a university helped my continuous professional development and benefitted my clients too.

As a freelance PR consultant many of the award-winning campaigns and initiatives that I helped to develop with my colleagues at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the Scandinavian shipping and logistics conglomerate, were greatly enhanced by tapping into the array of talent that is the student body at the university. The students and my fellow academic colleagues were forever a source of inspirational ideas.