Creativity as employability: Public Relations education as preparation for ‘creative practice’ – attribute, process and outcome perspectives

This paper discusses what might be meant by creativity in Public Relations (PR) in relation to current conceptions of creativity and employability. The study uses a creativity frame to consider current ‘talent’ requirements of PR recruiters against conceptions of creative attributes and a study of PR graduate perceptions of their preparedness for practice.

The purpose of the paper is to improve understanding of creativity in PR practice so that we may have a better understanding of how educator practices might better inform and prepare students for PR practice.

The study discovers a wide-range of conceptions of creativity and creative attributes and applies these to recruiter requirements showing how they integrate with and inform existing professional KSA and competency frameworks. The paper considers how this might be applied to ‘opportunity in uncertainty’ as a driver of value.

The paper raises questions about the extent to which PR education might support the ‘soft’ ‘talent’ skills identified by PR recruiters as a direction for further discussion on the development of the PR curriculum.

The paper introduces wider conceptions of creativity to the literature on PR education previously unconsidered to assist further discussion of PR’s signature pedagogies in a transforming PR and PR education practice environment.

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