Internal Communications

Completing my internship at the Department of Education has made me realise the extent to which internal communications is important, particularly the importance of consistency when communicating key messages.

During my internship I attended the University Club of WA for the ‘Second Intake Launch and Transition’ as the Premier of Western Australia, Minister for Education and Director General officially welcomed the second intake of Independent Public Schools.

I’ve been following this initiative since I started my internship at the Department of Education. The WA Government brought in the initiative to empower schools and principals to make local and community-based decisions for their school and school community.

Whilst the Premier, Minister and the Director General all spoke very well, I found it impressive that all communications of key messages were strong but more importantly very consistent. At such a large event with principals and chairs of school councils from as far north as Port Hedland to as east as Kalgoorlie, I think the audience would have left feeling confident about Independent Public Schools and the direction it will take in Western Australia due to the speakers conveying such strong and informative messages.

I personally found it impressive because all three official speakers were well informed and shared great knowledge of the initiative, despite being only one initiative out of too many to count that they are knowledgeable in! Particularly for the Premier who must be well informed on many different matters, but also for the Education Minister who also has in her portfolio tourism as the Tourism Minister for W.A. too.

The Corporate Communications and Marketing unit work very closely alongside the Director General’s office to ensure that all internal communications are correct. Consistency is highly important when messages go public and are communicated to the outside world. It was really interesting to see this exact flow of events.