Education issues at the heart of the PR Suisse General Assembly

At the recent General Assembly of PR Suisse, the Swiss professional association of PR and communications professionals, held at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, the members approved all the proposals of the Central Board without dissent and granted discharge. The entire Central Board and the Honorary Council were also re-elected without discussion.

In addition to the statutory business, President Peter Eberhard looked back on the activities in 2016 in his tour d'horizon and gave an outlook on the current year. The focus was, and still is, on issues relating to training and continuing education.

New examination regulations for PR specialist and PR consultant

The examination board of PR Suisse has adapted the qualification profile for the higher professional qualifications PR specialist (professional examination) and PR consultant (higher professional examination) to the changed requirements for PR professionals and is in the process of developing the new examination regulations and guidelines on this basis under the aegis of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). This work is expected to be completed in the course of 2017. The two examinations and courses are to be offered under these new conditions from 2018.

Project person certificate

The increasingly large and widely branched range of educational opportunities in the field of PR/communication does not make it easy for both the job market and those interested in courses to find their way around. In addition, the labor market lacks a uniform, practice-oriented job description. PR Suisse therefore decided to review its commitment in the area of education and training in addition to its previous activities with the involvement of an external, experienced education expert.

After discussing various options and holding numerous talks with industry experts, the Board decided to pursue the "personal certificate" project (in accordance with the ISO standard). The primary goal of such a certificate is to provide professionals in the field of PR/communications with a uniform competence profile, regardless of their educational background and with a high level of credit for practical experience.

Relaunch of website and takeover of SPRI job exchange

In the course of a comprehensive technical relaunch of its website, PR Suisse took over SPRI's highly frequented job exchange at the beginning of March. This is the only Swiss job portal that exclusively covers qualified positions in the field of PR / communications.

First industry report "Corporate Communication

As a follow-up project, so to speak, to the 2015 brochure "Corporate Communication and Public Relations," an assessment of the state of the industry from the perspective of PR Suisse, an agreement was reached with the trade magazine Werbewoche to publish an industry report entitled "Corporate Communication" for the first time. In this special issue, which has just been published and for which PR Suisse was responsible for the editorial content, various authors comment on current industry topics from a strategic perspective. (pd)