Last year the CIPR launched Internal Communications Certificate programme in the United Kingdom. In February 2010 the course for the Certificate starts in Apeiron Academy. The Bulgarian centre is the first centre outside United Kingdom who got official accreditation and will start educating specialists in the programme. We present you excerpts from an interview Ann Pilktington, one of the lecturers in the qualification program, gave for www.simply-communicate.
How has the introduction of the ICC been received by the industry?
It’s done very well. This year we’ve run four public courses, and two in-house courses with the government department HMRC.
What has the uptake been like (in the UK)?
We currently have about 100 students, which is a really strong amount. For them it’s exciting because the qualification is very new - it’s the first thing of its kind that’s really been done. For a long time now there have been qualifications in PR, and other fields like marketing and HR, but before this there was no equivalent qualification in Internal Comms. For the students it’s great to see some recognition that IC is an established profession with theory behind what we do - we’re not just corporate postmen.
So the course lends a legitimacy to the industry?
Yes, and something we’re seeing is that many of the students are very tactical in their approach. They realise that there’s a lot more to the field than they perhaps realised, and then bring that message back to the workplace and tell their company, “Hey, we should be doing these other things.”
So on the certificate you’ve been running this year, what kind of results have you seen?
It’s a little early yet to be judging exactly what kind of return students can expect from the certificate, but what we have seen is that the light has been switched on for people who take our course - it broadens their horizons. With other courses we’ve run in the past we’ve seen students actually leave their jobs once they finish, because the course gives them that impetus, and those who feel frustrated having learned so much might feel that they could be making better use of their knowledge elsewhere.
How is the course received by the more seasoned comms practitioners, who made their way without any qualifications?
There’s always a debate between the more experienced, seat-of-the-pants approach to this business and the qualification approach. One thing we’ve noticed though is that the profile of the students coming onto the course isn’t what we expected - there’s a far greater spread of ages and people from all different backgrounds. The content of the certificate is somewhat dictated by the more experienced practitioners in the first place. I think more than anything these qualifications offer people a chance to catch up with those who are the dyed-in-the-wool comms professionals.
We’ve also seen people coming onto these courses and then rising through the ranks in their organisation, then sending their employees onto the courses too.
How does the course foster the creative side of IC?
AP: When people think of creativity they tend to think of clever stunts - fun things to do. We would take the approach that it’s more important to understand your audience and understand your objectives. By doing this you know what you want to achieve, and your creativity falls out of that. Our students are given the tools and techniques to get the strategy right, their creativity blooms out of this.
How do the courses you offer address social media?
Again, it’s about teaching people the principles. We don’t teach people how to use Facebook for example. What social media does is quicken the speed at which we work and change the dynamic around comms - so IC needs to change to accommodate that.
It’s more about how social media impacts the role of the IC professional. You have to be a facilitator. The risk is that internal comms practitioners keep working in a top-down way, and might do the occasional cursory bit of social media - a podcast or a webinar, but nothing else. We mustn’t feel threatened by social media - obviously it’s not good to have employees sit on Facebook all day, but it can be very helpful in particular sorts of communities.
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One interview of Luke Westaway for http://www.simpy-communicate.com
Original link: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/cipr-offers-more-ways-communicators-get-qualified
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