Faye Oakey PR.

Last night I took part in an online conversation: Comms Chat, with Richard Bailey, senior lecturer at Leeds Met and editor of Behind the Spin. It was the first time I’d come across this initiative, which is endorsed by Wolfstar PR, and what a great idea. It is self defined as “the home of Europe’s most popular communications conversation”. I really enjoyed the opportunity to converse with likeminded people; other students, professionals and educators. Plus it was very easy to use and follow, I simply joined in via the Twitter app on my iPhone. The discussion centred around the topic of learning. One of the questions offered was “How useful is a qualification (degree level or otherwise) in PR?” to which I gave my opinion. I tweeted (abbreviated for Twitter): “As a PR student, I see my degree as essential education not only of the industry but in life skills. I’d have had no idea where to start with gaining experience without it. Education allows for exploring our interests for our future career.” Personally I feel this time in education is extremely important for my development; school is a whole lot different to the working environment and university prepares us for that. It’s about finding your strengths, interests and working out what you’d like to pursue in your career. As well as allowing for making mistakes, making friends with people with similar interests and enjoying being young before the world of work. There was also a whole host of other discussion which gave me food for thought and made for an interesting evening. I’m always looking to learn and this is a nice way to network with people who can teach. I look forward to joining in another topic soon.