Here’s what PR students do

I've completed another round of visits to students in the workplace. Here's a snapshot of the priorities of ten placement students (7 in house, 3 in consultancies) based on my estimate of how they divide their time between roles. For reference, here's the same exercise conducted a year ago.

There's a new admin category this year; this covers the support functions often given to placement students. But I should note that one student has been asked to hire her own assistant, so there's an unexpected management element in here too.

1. Media relations (41%)

2. Events (20%)

3. Internal comms (12%)

4. Social media (10%)

5. Corporate and community (9%)

6. Admin/management (8%)

The sectors represented are varied: I've visited students at organisations involved in fashion, healthchare, industrial gases, media, retail, tourism and transport. It was encouraging to find how highly these students are valued and how well they are supported by their employers.