Bob-a-PR-job

— Posted Friday 18th June 2010 by Sarah Rathbone under Stuff worth knowing

PR is packed full of girls and so we were hopeful that the male-female mix might be less skewed towards the fairer sex in the future when we were approached by a boy scout who wanted some work experience in order to do his PR badge.

The boy scout in question was actually a Sea Scout, with an impressive list of water-based adventures under his belt.

Being staunch PR advocates we were impressed to see that PR as a function and communications skill was being promoted to the businessmen and women of the future. But we faced the grumblings of a few, er, grumpy types wondering why on earth someone would do a badge in PR when they could learn about ropes and stuff – we name and shame you Ed Robertson.

Taking a look at the badges available to the Sea Scouts you can prove your mettle in everything from dragon boating to DIY, but in recent years there have been a raft of new badge introductions to reflect the modern world, and more importantly the realistic skills that young people will be required to demonstrate in their future education and careers.

Being realistic, the badges have also had to change in order to continue to keep the attention of an increasingly savvy and sceptical generation who are commercially minded tweens.

Bearing in mind our visiting scout was just 13, the list of tasks he had to complete would put to shame the experience on CVs of many graduates we have knocking down our doors thinking they have decent work experience.

Our sea scout had to show some real tenacity, apply his experiences to a communications function, and find ways to promote the day to day activities and achievements of his scout group. There was no theory and text book analysis here, it was sleeves rolled up all the way.

So how does a 13 year old cope in the offices of a potty mouthed team? After some ‘language adjustment suggestions’ we were ready to embrace him and offer some support to help him through the badge – writing presentation, conducting interviews, preparing press releases and finding stories. He stormed through tasks, proving to be a computer whizz and capable, bright writer.

The bravery and skills required to walk into an office of people he had never met before was also pretty impressive. He joined in the office banter, worked hard and had the common sense to ask when he needed help. All valuable assets of any team member.

Oh, and the bit we haven’t got to yet as he ran out of time on his half term trip to the Siren office was setting up the website he needs to content manage and update. How many long-in-the-tooth PR’s can do that?

We loved welcoming to our office someone young, determined and un-phased by a long list of achievements required. If this is the future of PR then the ‘be prepared’ scout motto will be stamping out dinosaurs in our profession faster than you can tie a woggle.