Professional training ain‘t cheap. So you don’t want to waste the precious training budget on courses that fail to give useful skills, and which end up being a waste of time, as well as money. When asked what courses they found most useless, PROs interviewed named management training, time-management, team-building and basic writing workshops. The complaints were that these courses were too much like “common sense“. And if you don’t have common sense already, it’s unlikely you can learn it.

Before working out the key skills your staff do need to learn that can only be provided by external trainers, work out what skills your own in-house experts can share. Becky McMichael, head of strategy and innovation and PR agency Ruder Finn UK, says that for the varied skills that most PROs need nowadays, from design to digital, work-based training is a “no-brainer“. McMichael gives this example to prove her point: “You don't want the whole agency to be a qualified graphic designer, but you do need them to know how to brief a designer on a job or what the press's requirements are in terms of high-res JPEGs. Work-based training is a great way to share knowledge and best practices and capture a low-depth, but high-breadth, level of knowledge about a practical subject.”

Nancy Prendergast, managing director of PR consultancy Tannissan Mae agrees that work-based training is critical: “Most of what we ever learn as PROs we learn on the job, from peers and seniors – some of whom are specialists in their own right. I find short, practical sessions work best. We focus on pitch ideas, developing a target media list, learning the ins and outs of a client’s product or sharp writing. Interestingly, other agencies have started sending staff to us for skills sessions. They value being trained by experts, but just off the home turf. “

When it comes to outsourcing training, if it is to be worthwhile, McMichael believes it should directly link to a client need or an upcoming campaign where the skills can be gained and then used in quick succession. She also offers this tip for getting the most out of external training: “Having people return from more in-depth courses and then run short tasters internally is a solid way to ensure they process and understand what they've learned.”

Case study
 

Matt Appleby, managing director of Cardiff PR at Golley Slater, describes the mix of training that takes place in his agency, and why on-the-job training is best:

"There's definitely a place for learning about general PR skills by attending training workshops, but we're firm believers in on-the-job training as the skills you learn on training courses only really become meaningful when they are tried and tested in practice.

“We have a staff appraisal system that identifies training needs for each member of the team for the forthcoming year.

"We have an annual training budget for workshops and we book staff onto those they feel would meet their needs. These tend to be a mixture of practical and skill specific topics such as advanced social media, press-release writing, feature writing, internal communications and PR planning, as well as management ones including strategic PR planning and budgeting.

"Staff are encouraged to champion their own development by taking part in regular CIPR events such as the Rise and Shine breakfasts as well as the latest run of free CIPR webinars. As well as signing up to outsourced training, staff also take ownership of an area that will benefit the team and our work such as creativity or effective brainstorming. They are responsible for reading up on the subject and coming up with new ideas for the whole team.”

Written by Daney Parker