Public relations and communications assistant
Sales, marketing and procurement
Level 4 -
Building, protecting and maintaining a positive reputation for brands, organisations and individuals.
Reference: OCC0311
Status:
SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 2493/02 Public relations officers
- 1133/00 Public relations and communications directors
- 2493/01 Press officers
- 2493/03 Social media managers
Technical Education Products
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Department for Education, TALA, Mitie, ADPR, Wessex Water, The Valuable 500, Campaign Collective, Cabinet Office, Westco Communications
Summary
This occupation is found in organisations that come from the public, private and third sectors. Typically, public relations and communications assistants work in agencies or in-house for employers.
The broad purpose of the occupation is the building, protecting, and maintaining of positive reputation for brands, organisations, and individuals. The role also concerns the way those brands, organisations and individuals communicate about themselves, their products, or their services with a range of audiences, via different methods.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation will communicate and build relationships with different people. This includes the media, stakeholders, the public, internal colleagues, and various audiences to get their client’s or organisation’s message across and influence opinions and behaviour in the most effective way.
An employee in this occupation will be responsible for researching and understanding their clients’ or organisation’s goals. They will then use their communication expertise to support the day-to-day delivery of effective campaigns to deliver specific objectives or organisational goals. Typically, this would include developing written and non-written content, contributing towards campaigns or new business proposals, and managing and sharing information with stakeholders. An individual will spend time researching various audiences and stakeholders. They will analyse and report on the impact of campaigns and programmes.
The occupation requires using one’s own initiative while supporting those leading on campaigns and programmes and involves working closely with colleagues in a team environment.
As a core element of their role, public relations and communications assistants will be required to have a good knowledge of current affairs, the media, the public relations industry and how it informs their role. They will understand how their role supports the wider organisation structure. They will apply codes of practice, legislation, and regulation in respect of their organisation’s areas of operation. This will apply not only to legal and ethical responsibilities but will include the central placement of inclusion and sustainability.
Public relations and communications assistants will use IT systems and software to support campaigns. This may extend to the production of non-written content such as film production, live streaming, image creation and infographic production.
Typically, employees will be mainly desk-based, although travel to meetings, events and training is routinely part of the role.
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Department for Education, TALA, Mitie, ADPR, Wessex Water, The Valuable 500, Campaign Collective, Cabinet Office, Westco Communications
Typical job titles include:
Keywords:
Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)
Duties
Duty D1
Develop written and non-written content and schedule this content for publication/distribution according to the public relations and communications or campaign plan.
Duty D2
Contribute to the creation of campaigns or new business proposals planning and their implementation.
Duty D3
Research, analyse and monitor stakeholders to inform engagement strategies.
Duty D4
Monitor media to keep up to date with current affairs and build knowledge of the journalist and media landscape.
Duty D5
Research, analyse and evaluate campaigns against key performance indicators (KPIs) to prepare future campaigns.
Duty D6
Share content with relevant stakeholders and media, to inform and influence audiences to maintain positive relationships.
Duty D7
Undertake reputation assessment and formulate responses to support stakeholders with the planning and implementation of reputation management and/or crisis strategies.
Duty D8
Support the Public Relations and Communications’ team with routine administrative, logistical, and time-sensitive tasks.
Duty D9
Support the planning and delivery of ad hoc engagement activities such as events.
Duty D10
Contribute to team development through sharing relevant knowledge and skills when required.
Duty D11
Organise and coordinate stakeholder meetings.
Duty D12
Contribute to the organisational objectives and key performance indicators to support communication activities which drive and improve performance and sustainability goals.
Occupational Progression
This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.
In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.
It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.
Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.
Technical Occupations
Levels 2-3
Higher Technical Occupations
Levels 4-5
Professional Occupations
Levels 6-7
Creative and design
Sales, marketing and procurement