Is PR a profession?

And more importantly, do we want it to be.

Today as part of our PPE module, we took part in a lecture about Public Relations as a profession. As a student, I’d never really thought about it before. It’s a career yes, but not a profession, and I’d never really made that distinction before. Now I’m going to raise the question: Does it really matter?

The profession type jobs are obvious, really. Medicine. Architecture. Law. You know the score. With PR however, there is currently nothing standing in the way of someone wanting to work in PR. No qualifications are ‘needed’ (I say needed because of course the knowledge gained from doing a degree is always worthwhile in my book), and neither is membership to a professional body.

Becoming a profession would mean closing the door to those without qualifications. Through the Leeds Met guest lectures I’ve had the pleasure of learning how many practitioners came to be in their job, and not all of them took the degree route. In fact one leading consultancy owner admitted to almost getting into the business by accident. Closing the door would mean losing out on people like that. People who might not think to study PR at university, but end up being excellent when coming across it by chance.

Public Relations does not need the ‘profession’ status to keep on being professional in what it does. The CIPR has a strict code of conduct that all members must follow, including to uphold highest standards, have regard to public interest, respect the truth and not disseminate misleading information, keep confidences and declare interests. Should all practitioners agree to; and practice, these rules, then the industry is doing its bit for society.

Of course, the other side to this is that not all practitioners are members of the CIPR. Infact there is estimated to be around 48,000 people working in PR, whilst only around 9000 members of the CIPR. This raises the question of how many practitioners follow this code, and who is enforcing it.

There is always going to be people who do not act ethically whilst doing their job (for example there has been many cases of people of different professions being ‘struck off’), and for me PR becoming a profession won’t change that. The Public Relations industry is an exciting place to be right now, with many different qualifications becoming available to those who want it. I sincerely hope the industry keep progressing to gain and accepted and trusted place in society.