PRII Certificate in Crisis Communications & Issues Management

Developed to give communications and other professionals a deeper insight into the challenges facing organisations when managing crisis events and high profile issues, in the full glare of the media.

Who is this course for?

Professionals charged with specific responsibility for communications planning, crisis planning and dealing with media within organisations, agencies, and the public service. This course will be of particular benefit to those responsible for media planning and interaction in more challenging and testing times.

Learning outcomes

This course will provide participants with a deeper understanding of a crisis media scenario & how it can best be anticipated and managed. It will also:

• Enhance your understanding & knowledge of dealing with issues, which can play out for organisations in the media, with the related public scrutiny
• Provide practical guidelines to assist in planning for crisis media events & issues management
• Highlight the absolute necessity to communicate with credibility & speed when confronted with unexpected media & public scrutiny
• Demonstrate the vital requirement of planning, teamwork & leadership in dealing with crisis situations & responding to issues which for whatever reason attain a public dimension
• Highlight the critical value of getting ‘your message’ out there in either a crisis or issues management scenario
• Afford an opportunity to participate in realistic crisis & issues management exercises

Topics covered

• Planning for the crisis, who will be involved, what plans to guide them?
• Communicating in a crisis, especially with media & in social media
• Critical examination & discussion on past crisis & issues management situations
• Learning to lead & work as part of a team in responding to various scenarios
• Importance of creating a calm & supportive working environment
• Maintaining credibility, working with established facts, avoiding speculation

Assessment & Accreditation:

Assessment is by continuous assessment taking account of attendance and participation in class.

Participants are encouraged to apply learning from the readings, modules and discussions and show how these apply to their own work situation and communications challenges.

Final assessment is by way of a 3,000 word written assignment / Crisis & Issues Plan for their organisation demonstrating their overall understanding of crisis and issues planning and management as discussed over the course of the Certificate programme and how this applies in a practical sense to an organisation.

This course is accredited by the Public Relations Institute of Ireland – the professional body for communications and PR in Ireland.