The Swiss Public Relations Institute SPRI will be dissolved at the end of the year.
After more than 40 years of commitment to PR continuing education, the Board of Trustees of the SPRI has decided to dissolve the Foundation at the end of 2017. The courses are to be continued.
The Swiss Public Relations Institute SPRI was founded in 1969 by PR Suisse (at that time the Swiss Public Relations Society SPRG) and became an independent foundation in 1980. Its central purpose has always been the launch, promotion and implementation of education and training in the field of PR/communication in the segment of higher professional education.
Due to the development of the educational landscape in the field of PR/communication, SPRI discontinued its own teaching operations in 2012 and outsourced its educational courses to external partners, including KV Bildungsgruppe Schweiz. Due to the fundamental upheaval in continuing education, the associated expectations could not be met, which is why the collaboration was dissolved by mutual agreement at the end of 2017.
Courses are continued
The courses currently taking place - in particular the course preparing for the examination to become a PR specialist with a federal certificate - are being completed as planned by the individual providers.
The Fribourg School of Economics (HEG Fribourg), which has been successfully offering postgraduate courses in public relations and communication in cooperation with the SPRI since 2008, will continue and develop this training independently. These are the CAS Strategic Editing and Communication and the DAS Communication Management.
In an effort to ensure the continuation of training in the field of public relations and institutional communication in French-speaking Switzerland, the SAWI (Academy for Marketing and Communication) will also be offering a new course starting in the fall of 2017, which will prepare students for the Swiss Federal Diploma in PR.
PR Suisse job board continues
The successful SPRI job exchange - the only Swiss job portal that exclusively covers qualified positions in the field of PR/communications - has already been continued by PR Suisse since the beginning of March 2017.
