What I learnt on my PR work experience placement

I recently had the opportunity to undertake a four-day work experience placement at Fortitude Communications.

As someone aspiring to work in PR I was very grateful to have the opportunity, and across the four days I gained a valuable and fascinating insight into working in PR that developed my knowledge, skills and confidence in myself.

PR campaigns

On placement I had the chance to work on a variety of campaigns for several different clients: I wrote an article for Oxford Speedway about their new signing and sport legend Chris Harris (the article was published on Oxford Speedway’s website, trade press and local media), a piece for Ignite Sport about their education programme Velocity Football, and a press release for the Oxford Bus Company giving an update on their Brand the Bus! competition. 

I also attended meetings with clients, both in-person and virtually, and throughout the week I created a 2024 calendar of national awareness days that could be useful in campaigns with Fortitude’s current clients.

Valuable insights

Being able to produce some work for a PR agency was great but the general placement experience was just as valuable; simply being among the Fortitude team was so insightful and I learned so much about the general working life of a PR professional. 

I saw first-hand how the team were constantly having to juggle working on different projects, with several clients, and how they had to tailor their skills accordingly to suit the campaign. Meanwhile, the placement also saw me develop skills in media relations such as how to write a news story as a PR professional compared to as a journalist (having previously had more of a journalism background through my degree this was great for me) and how to write an email to the media when trying attract them to a story or press release. 

Welcoming team

Throughout my time at Fortitude the whole team were very welcoming and despite having a busy schedule they went out of their way to ensure I had work to do, that I was included in their activities and that I got to experience a variety of different aspects to their job.

Overall, I gained a lot from my four days and really enjoyed it. I highly recommend Fortitude to anyone looking to gain some PR related work experience!