C&F on internship programme to address talent deficit in Nigeria’s PR industry

Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, chairman/CEO, C&F Porter Novelli, has called on PR practitioners in the country to devise means of addressing the various challenges facing the public relations practice in Nigeria. Maduegbuna made the call recently at the graduation ceremony of the 2012-2013 batch of interns, held at the firm’s office in Lekki, Lagos.

According to him, the annual internship programme is part of the agency’s contribution towards addressing the talent deficit encountered by the industry in Nigeria. “The objective of PR fundamentals is to foster talent in young Nigerians and drive the Nigerian public relations industry into new generation. The programme strives to be an industry guarantor of excellence in training entry-level employees,” Maduegbuna said.

To him, the programme also seeks to generate thought leadership on growing the industry, and is C&F Porter Novelli’s contribution to the advancement of the Nigerian public relations industry in Nigeria. He announced that the two graduating interns, Tosin Oshagbemi and Eseoghene Odiete, have been offered employment as account executives in the establishment.

Victoria Nwoji, head, human resources, said the programme, which is the first of its kind in the PR industry in Nigeria, “takes selected interns through a 12-month period of paid apprenticeship involving both classroom work and practical exposure to every facet of public relations practice.

“The programme curricula include classroom courses such as introduction to public relations, Nigeria media landscape, public relations consulting, and reputation management 101 among others, and a practical and experiential course that allows the interns become active members of a designated account teams, where they will acquire hands-on public relations experience, gaining exposure to areas such as client management, media relations, press and website content development, special event and business research, etc.”

The four pioneer interns are deploying the knowledge they acquired during their internship in their places of work, she said, expressing her optimism that the graduating interns will bring the knowledge they have acquired in the course of their internship to bear on their future endeavours.

The graduating interns, Tosin Oshagbemi and Eseoghene Odiete, described the programme as a great opportunity. Oshagbemi, a zoology graduate of University of Ilorin, stated that “as a scientist who had constantly been drawn to the PR world, my internship with C&F was a career-changing opportunity, allowing me to get my foot in the door of public relations. It was a great one-year experience.”

Odiete, a graduate of mass communication from Covenant University, said: “The training afforded me the opportunity to enhance my classroom education with practical and applied experience in the real world. The internship gave me the ability to pursue my career in public relations, allowing me to gain invaluable experience at an award-winning public relations firm.”