Is academia failing the future of PR?

Are PR programs teaching students practical skills, such as Excel and video editing, to land a job and succeed upon graduation? Weigh in.

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Why do PR people hate Excel so much?

I know the answer because I’m one of the people who hate it. It is the bane of my existence. But it’s something I need to know (and, I need to know it better), as I work with many Fortune 500 clients. In that world, Excel and PowerPoint rule. And by rule, I mean R-U-L-E.

Many PR people hate Excel because it’s all about process. And, deep down, it’s about analysis.

And those are skills many PR people lack—and don’t care they lack. More important, those are skills PR people never learned—in school or on their own.

Those process and analytic skills are becoming more important all the time. It’s high time our academic institutions caught up.

I discussed this topic with a couple of professor friends last week.

Here’s the crux of what’s happening:

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