Public Relations Courses:
Certified Public Relations Specialist Level I
CERTIFICATION DESCRIPTION
The American University of Cyprus presents as part of its department for continual education (DCE) Multilevel Public Relation Specialist Certifications aiming at professionally developing candidates who are willing to enhance their skills in this field and grasp the required competence in the field. A public relation specialist establishes and maintains organizations’ public relationships. They protect, enhance and build reputations through the media, social media, or self-produced communications. Public Relations Specialists form a two-way liaison between an organization and their public audience by generating a positive publicity for the organization, converting positive messages into positive story, enhancing its reputation, writing its publications, managing campaigns, handling consumer relations, mitigate public crisis, planning and directing public relations. In a reverse way, public relations specialists analyse markets and public, then integrate this analysis in new Public relations strategies. Many fields employ Public Relation Specialist for this scope including advertising, education, government, politics, and Business firms. A public relation specialist help to create the public face of a brand or company and manage messaging around the direction the company is taking, its goals, and its vision.
The Department of Continual Education in the American University of Cyprus provides three levels of Public Relation Specialists, through a total of sixty-one modules thoroughly designed and prepared to include the different skills and competence required for a Public Relation Specialists. These skills include basically communication, organization, writing, problem solving, and strategies. In more advance levels, the relevant competence includes the different business aspects of Public Relations where candidates are prepare to manage and operate a public relations agencies.
In Public Relations Specialist Level I, students are exposed to an overview of public relations principles and theories relevant to practice. They will explore the field, including the origin and trends affecting the future of the industry as well as how to land a job in public relations. This certification provides a broad overview of working in public relations and how different principles of persuasion are used in practice. The course also addresses ethical implications of public relations. Writing and communications skills are presented in this certification where the candidates are expected to acquire the different competence related to press releases, pitches, blogs, web pages, and journalism.
COURSE DURATION: A total of nine (9) weeks (60 hours).
JOB AND TASK DESCRIPTION
Upon completion of this certification, candidates are expected to acquire the skills for successfully occupying the position of a beginner public relations specialist for advertising, education, politics, governments, and businesses as follows:
Advertising: In advertising, a public relations specialist might focus on making sure ad campaigns match the company’s brand and meet their target audience’s expectations. Advertising PR can be a great way to incorporate your hobbies into your daily work life. For example, if you’re an avid hiker, working as a media specialist for an outdoor gear company might be a good fit for you.
Education: Public relations specialists working in education might be in charge of accruing donations for building new facilities, purchasing equipment or hiring new teachers. Education PR specialists might also promote university sports teams, reach out to prospective students and highlight large school events.
Government: In the government, public relations specialists are often called press secretaries and deal with communications such as informing the public of helpful government programs, creating news releases about how to fill out new tax forms and leading awareness campaigns about health and safety hotlines.
Politics: In politics, PR specialists may also be called press secretaries. They are responsible for maintaining a politician’s image, answering questions the media may have about political decisions and handling the public perception side of a political campaign.
Business: Public relations specialists in business focus on boosting a brand’s authenticity, managing relationships with potential customers and crafting company news releases to announce new products, corporate responsibility initiatives or company events.
