Hosting a workshop for students learning about PR and communications
The High-Rise team recently welcomed a group of first year students from The University of Manchester. The students came for a workshop to get an insight into what a career in PR and communications can entail.
The University of Manchester runs a scheme called ‘Behind Manchester’s Door’ for first year students. This allows them to see beyond their degree subject, and into other areas of interest.
As part of this scheme the students have visited many agencies to gain further knowledge of the difference between many PR and communications companies.
None of the students are studying PR and communications, which shows how diverse people’s backgrounds can be before joining the PR and communications sector. All the students have an interest in what High-Rise is doing, and it was great for them to get a feel for what a career in PR may look like after university.
What the workshop entailed
We began the session with an introduction of what High-Rise does, our purpose and our history. Each team member then introduced themself, giving some background on their career so far and how they got into PR.
We shared some of our most recent successes that have had local but also national interest. We also spoke about the different clients that we work with and their different goals in terms of coverage and long term aims.
The students were then split into two groups and set a task of thinking about our client Path Financial. We asked them how we could gain more coverage and media attention through new campaign ideas.
With little information or prior knowledge on green finance, the students were quick to understand the purpose of Path Financial and came up with great ideas.
The High-Rise team has come away with lots of new ideas for us to work on! The students focused particularly on social media and the use of TikTok. They spoke about how to target the young generations in educating them on green finance.
We also spoke about the importance of understanding your finances, and switching your pension to be green which many of the young people were found interesting. This conversation opened more ideas around how to spread this message with every generation. This is so that there is a greater understanding about the accessibility of green finance to everyone.
At the end of the session we regrouped and the students presented their ideas to the team. It was great to hear their ideas which all had a fresh take on green finance. Many of the students focused on how to engage different target audiences within our PR and communications.
They were all very engaged with the topic of green finance and learnt a lot about the importance of green finance. Many of the students were shocked they didn’t know about green finance before, and will learn more now.
Our takeaways from the session
Our Managing Director, Helen, says: “The High-Rise team have had a fantastic morning hosting students from the University of Manchester who were learning more about working in PR and communications.
“The students were studying subjects from history to fashion marketing. They were so engaged and interested that it was a pleasure to spend time with them.”
We had a great morning with the students and were very grateful to run the workshops with them. As a very engaged and keen group we learnt a great deal from them. Especially around the different ways we can work to get further coverage for our client.
We look forward to seeing what the students get up to in the future!
If you’d like to learn more about what we do at High-Rise, you can find more information here.