PR in the shadow of more traditional careers for UK graduates
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London, 18 April 2008 - Despite its Chartered status and focus on communications the PR industry is failing in the war for talent against more traditional careers. In a survey of university students in their final year considering a career in PR, the industry ranked ninth out of twelve popular careers when asked how effective it is at promoting career opportunities to graduates.
Banking (7.58 out of 10), accountancy (7.5), retail and marketing (7.1), teaching (6.9), law (6.6), engineering (6.5) and advertising (6.3) all achieved a higher effectiveness score than the PR industry (6.2). Only the charity sector (5.7), medical science (5.6) and journalism (4.3) were seen as less effective than the PR industry at promoting career opportunities to graduates.
According to the survey, graduates considering a career in PR see advertising and marketing to be the main alternatives careers. The survey showed that graduates rank training and clear career paths, creativity and working with ‘nice people’ as the top three factors when applying to PR agency graduate schemes.
The survey was carried out among 150 graduates who expressed an interest in Hotwire’s 2008 graduate scheme which has developed and nurtured over 70 PR professionals across Europe in the seven years it has been in operation.
“These results are truly shocking,” said Brendon Craigie, managing director UK at Hotwire. “We have adopted a proactive approach to identifying and hiring the best talent to get across this awareness gap, but clearly our industry has a lot of ground to make up if it is to be taken seriously by graduates. The PR industry has experienced significant growth in the last five years, but there is a real danger that we will be unable to sustain this if we cannot expand the talent pool.”
In March this year Hotwire was listed as the UK’s highest ranked PR consultancy in The Sunday Times ‘Best Small Companies To Work For listing.
For further information please contact:
Hotwire
Brendon Craigie
0207 608 2500
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Notes to Editors:
About Hotwire:
Hotwire is an international public relations consultancy established to provide innovative business and consumer PR services for the technology industry.
Hotwire has six specialist practice areas: applications & services, banking & finance, consumer, digital media, enterprise & electronics and telecommunications. The company has offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid and Milan.
Since its foundation, Hotwire has won a number of prestigious awards across Europe. The awards recognise the campaigns Hotwire implements for its clients as the most creative in our industry and include Best Pan-European Programme at the 2007 Sabre Awards, Best Technology Campaign at the 2007 PRWeek Awards, Best PR Campaign in France at the 2007 Sabre Awards and the 2007 Top Com Trophée for PR, Consumer Category.
Hotwire has also been recognised as a great company and fantastic place to work winning the International Consultancy of The Year at the PRWeek Awards 2007 and being named the Best Consultancy to Work For in the 2007 Holmes Report. |
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