Working on live projects
A realistic Guide to life at UCLan - written by students!
By Lucy Downham, 3rd year, BA(Hons) Politics and Public Relations and Melissa Tait, 3rd year, BA (Hons) Public Relations and Marketing
Many courses give the opportunity to get involved in live projects to put the theory they have learnt into practice.
Every year third year Public Relations students undertake the UK Progress module; a student-led PR agency within UCLan. UK Progress is a year long module where students gets the chance to work for independent clients, giving them hands on experience, enabling them to gain the tools required to succeed as a PR practitioner and therefore preparing them for the workplace.
UK Progress has been working with clients such as Rethink (a mental health charity), Plumbs (a national furniture company) and Check-In (a chauffeur and limousine organisation). Using the skills they have acquired during the three years at UCLan, the PR students used their knowledge to implement campaign strategies aimed at meeting the clients’ requirements and specifications.
The Rethink student team have implemented a campaign called Rethinking Student Mental Wellbeing within UCLan. The aim is to challenge the stigma around mental health and encourage students to seek help early when it is needed. The students have been trying to raise awareness of the services available at UCLan designed to help students maintain a healthy mental well-being whilst studying.
This has been achieved through creating a university website which gives advice and information on student life and troubles to enable them to seek help. The students have designed posters related to student life issues which guides the students to the link: www.uclansu.co.uk/headroom .
Melissa Tait a third year Public Relations and Marketing student currently working with Rethink said, “This module has helped me to apply theory learnt throughout my course and put it into practice, giving us students the chance to work with real-life clients has been extremely beneficial.”
Lucy Downham a third year Politics and Public Relations student currently working with Rethink said, “Working with Rethink has really helped me to understand what working in the public sector consultancy would be like.”
