Hey there,
Hope that you are all enjoying the last few weeks of your internship. My internship at the Ministry of Education and Human Resources is just awesome as I am learning new stuff everyday. These two weeks have been very fruitful as I have learned how to do media clippings, how to write speeches for the Minister, media releases for the different events organized by the Ministry, how to organize events and also I had to update the media list. Many a times, people used to ask me what is the real role of a PR practitioner??? as they tend to believe that PR is the same as marketing. They believe that the role of a PR officer is to persuade people in buying or using a particular product or service. At the beginning I was quite confused and believed that maybe that was the work of a PR person, finally there’s no big difference between a PR practitioner and a marketer. But with this internship, I was able to understand the real role of a PR practitioner, through the different task assigned to me. And today I have no regrets of my choice/field of study.
Sitting within a four walls of a room from 8.30am to 4.30 pm everyday may seem boring for some people and sure was for me during my first week internship as I had basically nothing to do. But with the guidance of my supervisor, I finally enjoyed working in the Ministry and learned how to work in a proactive and efficient way. Though being a busy person, he devoted a lot of time to help me write my first media release and speech. This was fun but stressful as well as it related to the image of the Minister and the whole vision and mission statements of the Ministry.
When writing the speech or the media releases, the message of the Minister should convey all the strategic objectives, both short term and long term, of his Ministry. And I had also to bear in mind the target audience to which he was addressing. In some occasions, for example when addressing pedagogues and policy makers, his speech has to be very formal, argumentative and academic. But when addressing other audiences for example parents or students, he had to adopt a very personal and emotional approach while at the same time conveying the essence of his educational policies.
Another job with I had to do was summaries of the different articles. This is somehow the most interesting thing to do as at the same time you are learning and updating your knowledge about what is happening in the country. When doing the media clipping, as you all know I am sure, I had take all the different articles in all newspapers, related to education mainly, read them and do summaries for the Minister.
So here you are, some of the work that I had to do at the Ministry. My next blog will be on Events so keep reading J
Have a question for me? Put it in the comments below and I'll do my best to get back to you!
Manishka Kistamah
Charles Telfair Institute
9 comments:
hey manishka :) Nice to hear that your internship was really helpful to you. thank you for clearing out confusion between the job of a marketer and that of a PR practitioner :) keep it up xxx
Sounds like a very stressful job to be working for a Minister. I mean, it's like his speeches will be addressed to the public at large, and press releases will also be read by the mass, so I guess you'll have to be very careful when drafting those documents. One careless mistake could lead to consequences.
But somehow I also feel that it's a very interesting job scope you have there because you get to deal with politics.
Just like you, I had a agonizing first week at work because facing a desktop for 8hours per day is really not my kind of thing. But as I slowly settled in, I started to to enjoy my internship as I got to deal with many events like product launches.
Looking forward to your next blogpost regarding events! :)
Lorinna
(Singapore campus)
Hey, it sounds to be really hard to prepare speeches for a Minister. And not to forget when preparing the speech it need to be something that reflects the personality of the minister- Looks like that he prepared his own speech. Wish u good luck Manishka.:)
Looks like you had an awesome time with your placement.. It will definitely be a plus for you to have as reference as well. Keep the good job!!
Hey Manishka
good to hear you again. your job really sound awesome and yes it might happen that st time you have nothing to do but at times you have a lot of work. I sitting in an office for hours facing a laptop or a computer is obviously the hardest thing to do. I feel the same at times.
Smriti
CTI
14446229
Thanks all for the comments! :)
@Lorinna.. yeah sure its a very stressful job! And you have to focus on the message of the Minister!
Good luck for your internship!
Manishka, it seems that you got a tough job! But it also seems that you've excellently assumed the responsibilities with which you were assigned. Writing speeches for such an important person is no easy task. I would say great job...and good going keep it up :)
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