What students tell us about PR internships by Tom Watson from Bournemouth Media School

It’s the time of year when the placement reports from our PR students are reviewed, says Prof Tom Watson of Bournemouth University’s Media School. The students from the BA (Hons) Public Relations programme spend from 40 to 51 weeks on a paid industry placement in their third year before returning to complete their studies. “Their reports tell us about the state of the PR industry and how well we have prepared them for it,” Tom says. “I had expected that their reports may indicate that there are very hard times in consultancy and in-house operations. But that’s not the case for 2009-10. “What always amazes me is how quite large responsibilities are transferred to them from early in the placement and how well they perform.” A cross-section of students that Tom and colleagues have reviewed have worked in an international PR consultancy, a major IT company, a leading games entertainment firm and a large tourism-focused local authority. “All of them had very successful placements, with excellent feedback on their performance,” he said. “Among the tasks they undertook were the organisation of store launches, the creation of journalist-focused events, the management of parts of media relations campaigns and the organisation of residents’ focus groups.  “In one case, an intern was made the first point of contact with journalists within her first month. In another, the student led the focus groups after some training. This is great experience but it does transfer a lot of responsibility.”  All the students enjoyed their placements greatly and their reports are very reflective about what they learnt in the workplace and how their course prepared them. Their reports also help the BU public relations academic team fine-tune their teaching. “I’m probably not surprised, though, to find that the students were involved in very output-focused PR,” says Tom. “It was about getting coverage, schmoozing journalists and creating fun events. At this level, students aren’t always involved in the strategy discussions but there seemed to be a predominance of tactical activity. As for evaluation of PR activity, it was not very evident and often related to clip measurement. We teach students about PR evaluation and research methods but they often struggle to put it into action.” Tom Watson is Professor of Public Relations at Bournemouth University Media School. If your are looking to recruit in the UK PR market, then maybe you should use PRmoment Jobs. It's a great way to target 11,000 UK based PROs.