✅ Socially Mobile empowers diverse talent, drives industry transformation
Your week ahead in management, media and public relations
The Socially Mobile Community Interest Company published its second impact report last week. Sarah Waddington CBE and I founded the programme during lockdown to support practitioners from lower socio-economic backgrounds and underrepresented and underserved groups.
In 2023, we provided 42 students across three cohorts with management-level training in public relations practice.
The programme positively impacted the career prospects of graduates: 28% reported new and better jobs, more than a sixth gained promotion and a fifth reported salary increases. The report has two explicit calls to action for the corporate communications and public relations industry.
Applications for the next cohort close this Friday, 19 April. The programme will start on 6 May. Fully funded and paid places are available. Please visit the website and follow the application button at the top right to apply.
To remain sustainable through 2025, we need to raise £15,000. Please email me if you’d like to fund a place for £750 or support the programme through sponsorship. We’re grateful for pledges of more than £4,000 in the past week. Thank you.
The ten-week programme provides public relations practitioners with management-level skills. It combines online learning, masterclasses, a live crisis management simulation and workshop seminars. Students are assessed each week through a reflective learning exercise.
The diversity breakdown of the Socially Mobile class of 2023 reflects the intersectional nature of representation, with participants from lower socio-economic backgrounds (eight students), ethnic minorities (seven students), the LGBTQ+ community (two students), women returners (14 students) and those with disabilities, including neurodiversity (14 students).
You can catch Sarah in Cardiff on Wednesday at the Everything EDI - CIPR Cymru Spring Conference when she will lead a session on breaking down barriers to careers in public relations.
Have an excellent week.
Good and bad PR
📮 POST OFFICE CONDEMNED: Alan Bates, a prominent campaigner and former sub-postmaster, called the Post Office an "atrocious organisation" that's "beyond saving" in his evidence to the Horizon inquiry this week. He accused the Post Office of attempting to "discredit and silence" him for over two decades and criticised the government's inability to handle the scandal "easily and sensibly." Source: ITV.
😡 ABRDN BACKLASH: Abrdn’s chief investment officer Peter Banner faced a backlash after accusing the media of "corporate bullying.” He argued that it would not be acceptable to mock an individual's name in the same way. The £495bn financial firm rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen in April 2021. Source: The Guardian.
Risk issues
🌏 RENEWAL PLAN: David Miliband has set out a plan for reimagining the future of the UK post-Brexit as the axis of international power shifts. He calls on the next government to address four questions: where do we start, what do we stand for, where do we need to build relationships, and what can we afford? Source: The Observer.
🇬🇧 IMPORT TARIFFS: After numerous delays, the UK government introduced new Brexit import tariffs over the Easter weekend. Industry groups reacted with anger to the last-minute nature of the tariff implementation, which comes into effect at the April, following five previous delays. Source: Financial Times.
🏥 RETHINKING GENDER-CARE: An independent review of gender identity services for youth recommends a new approach emphasising holistic assessment and evidence-based psychological support. It advises caution regarding medical interventions for minors and calls for further research into outcomes. Source: Cass Report.
Industry
🎓 EDUCATION DISCONNECT: Dr Kevin Ruck highlights the decline of single honours public relations degrees in the UK and the inaccessibility of academic research findings to practitioners. He and Richard Bailey are researching an update on their PR education report, focusing on the weak transfer of academic knowledge to practice, which they believe is a more significant issue than the degree decline. Source: Dr Kevin Ruck.
Media
🦜 HOAX NEWS: Comedian Joe Lycett has demonstrated the lack of scrutiny on UK newsdesks by successfully pitching a series of fake stories over the past month. He successfully planted stories, including a man with a bruise in the shape of Prince Harry's face and a statue of H from the band Steps, which was being erected in Wales. Source: The Guardian.
Research and insight
🏴☠️ CORPORATE ACTIVISM: The 2024 Global Communication Report by USC Annenberg explores the challenges companies face in balancing stakeholder demands on societal issues. It highlights polarization and the U.S. election's impact on corporate activism, offering guidance for business leaders on effective stakeholder communication. Source: USC Annenberg.
📋 PUBLIC RELATION SURVEY: The CIPR has launched its 2024 State of the Profession 2024 survey to capture practitioners' views on the health of the industry, its skills landscape, professional development, and the profession's adaptation to AI tools. The survey is for anyone who works in the public relations industry. Source: CIPR.
Artificial intelligence
😒 AI INSTRUSION: LinkedIn has unleashed the LLM built from collaborative articles and user profiles, and it's bloody awful. Every post in my newsfeed has a series of AI prompts to discover more. It's like an unwelcome guest butting into your conversations, but maybe that’s just me. What do you think? Source: Stephen Waddington.
Thank you to the following members of our community for sharing and debating stories covered in the newsletter over the past two weeks: Richard Bailey, Catherine Frankpitt, Alan Morrison, Dr Kevin Ruck, Sarah Waddington CBE and Dr Jon White.