Is a public relations degree worth it?

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Over on his personal blog at Rock Star PR Jed Hallam has sparked quite a debate (20 comments at the time of writing this) on the value of PR degrees. If you haven’t already seen it you should check it out and add your comments. I’ve added mine and reproduced it below:

“Wow Jed, what a response. Where do I start to add my comments as a lot of it has already been said.

I suppose my answer would be it depends. I’m a very firm believer in the value of PR qualifications and certainly anyone with less than about ten years’ experience has to offer me something ’special’ to counter the fact they don’t have one. When I first graduated I paid personally to put myself through completing the CAM Diploma in PR as weekend classes.

I think the real value of PR degrees isn’t necessarily when you first start work. Some of the technical skills can reasonably be learnt ‘on the job’. It gets more useful a few years later when the really good PR students tend to be the ones that become best at seeing strategic comms within the overall business and organisational context.

I also very much agree with David Brain’s comment about the importance of ‘extra-curricular’ stuff on a CV. What most impresses me, regardless of what degree someone has done, is what else they’ve done over and above what they had to. On a PR degree you have to get some experience, either as a year out or during the degree. That don’t impress me much. What does is what you’ve done for your student union, a local charity, community or pressure group, a political party - you get the idea. I want people who are willing to put something back into society because you want to, not because you have to. If people can’t be bothered then Wolfstar definitely isn’t the best place for them to start job hunting!”