Accreditation in Public Relations
Accreditation is very important in the field of Public Relations. It has the ability to improve the potential of individuals. In such a competitive job field, everyone wants to be the very best they can be and becoming accredited will defiantly help.
First off, we need to understand exactly what accreditation is.
Accreditation is a certification program offered to public relations professionals. This program is voluntary and is administered by the Universal Accreditation Board.
As I previously mentioned, accreditation helps public relations professionals in several ways.
1) Accreditation identifies specific individuals who are knowledgeable, professional, and possess experience. By becoming accredited, others in the field will immediately know that you are serious and successful when dealing with public relations.
2) Many job listings are searching specifically for individuals who are accredited. The job market is currently in a rough patch. Getting jobs is becoming harder and harder. By becoming accredited, you gain something extra and landing jobs will not be as hard.
The video below explains why accreditation is such a positive thing. It is presented by Heathere Evans-Keenan, a highly respected public relations practitioner.
Becoming accredited is not an easy task. It takes a lot of time and money. If one is dedicated to the field enough, it will defiantly be worth it. The PRSA home page describes step-by-step how one becomes accredited.
Although we know accreditation is a great, it is not heavily promoted at the current time. The PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) needs to make accreditation more visible and important to business leaders. If they accomplish this, the world of public relations would greatly improve. Figuring out how to promote accreditation is difficult, but I have created three plans that could potentially help.
1) Company Groups- If the PRSA promoted accreditation to a specific company, individuals might be more interested in it if they knew other people where doing it. Most coworkers within a company talk to each other on a daily basis. Having the support of each other would make the process more relatable. I feel this would give individuals the push they need to become accredited.
2) Simple Promotion Techniques- The PRSA could possibly create handouts or a short presentation to show a company. If accreditation were presented to individuals in an easy to understand way, more people would become interested. People would start to talk and we all know word-of-mouth is a great promotion technique.
3) Require Accreditation- If the PRSA started to force companies to only hire individuals that are accredited, people would have to do so. This may sound extreme, but if someone is truly serious about public relations, they should want to be accredited.
Accreditation is a powerful certification that a public relations professional should have. Although difficult to promote, there are a few possible ways to make accreditation an important part of the public relations field.
