The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has published new research revealing that cost, low awareness, and a lack of locally relevant content are keeping young African professionals from global PR training, certification, and employment.
The report – Impact Beyond Borders: Expanding Global Access for Young African Communicator – was authored by Adedoyin Jaiyesimi Chart.PR MCIPR and sponsored by the CIPR Research Fund. It draws on a survey of more than 200 respondents across 11 African countries, 10 focus group discussions with 40 young professionals in Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and one-on-one interviews with the presidents of four national PR associations and the chair of the CIPR International Group.
The study sets out to understand why young African professionals are excluded from global PR and communications training and how international associations could widen access. Reviewing how training is provided across the sector, it identifies where engagement is strongest and sets out practical steps to reach those still being missed.
The research identifies three main barriers that limit the access young African professionals have to global training and certification:
- Financial constraints and affordability
- Limited awareness and visibility of what associations offer
- A mismatch between global course content and African market realities
To address the barriers, the report proposes the ARC model, a framework built on three pillars: accessibility, relevance and collaboration. Accessibility addresses the cost, format and payment of training. Relevance concerns how well course content reflects African markets. Collaboration calls for partnerships between global bodies and African associations, academic institutions and PR communities.
Young African professionals are ambitious and want to build global careers, yet this research shows they remain submerged in the global aggregate, counted within the wider profession but rarely studied in their own right. The barriers are consistent across the countries we looked at. Cost puts global training and certification out of reach for many, awareness of what associations offer is low, and the content that is available too often fails to reflect African realities. More than eight in ten young professionals without a certification told us they want to earn one. That ambition deserves a pathway that is within reach, and the ARC model sets out how the industry can begin to build one.
This is a valuable piece of research that asks an important question about the future of our profession. As the African continent grows in cultural and economic relevance, it focuses on a group whose experiences have too often been overlooked and sets out clearly the barriers standing in their way. My thanks go to Adedoyin for such a thoughtful and well-evidenced contribution. I would encourage practitioners and associations across the profession to read it and consider what it means for how we support the next generation of communicators.
