How to study public relations for free
There’s more to public relations than publicity
PR Academy’s free online Introduction to Public Relations course was first launched in 2014 and since then thousands of people from all around the world have done it.
It started as a “MOOC” – a Massive Open Online Course – but has since moved on to the PR Academy website for anyone to join at any time.
I asked co-founder of PR Academy, Ann Pilkington for the thinking behind this course:
‘We started this free online course because we wanted to make more people aware of what public relations is all about and to give them an opportunity to dip their toe into the water before jumping in to a full qualification. Also, we know that many people won’t have access to PR education and qualifications because of where they are or because of the financial commitment it involves.
‘It’s introductory level, so for people who are considering PR as a career, those who are thinking about studying it, or those who find they are being asked to do some PR and want to find out what it is all about. I think it works really well as a warm up to the CIPR Foundation qualification that we run too.’
The course covers:
What is public relations
PR planning
Media relations
How to write a press release
Preparing for a media interview
Events
Social media
Internal communication
The difference between working in-house and consultancy
Skills needed.
This is an updated version of a post originally published in 2018.