PR Internships For All

The PRCA and PRWeek  have joined forces with the Taylor Bennett Foundation and Intern Aware to lead a concerted drive to bring more young people from diverse backgrounds into the PR and communications profession at entry level.

We are calling on the biggest and the best in the business to join PR Internships For All and lead the way in a public, demonstrable and structured fashion.

The PRWeek/PRCA Census 2013 demonstrated the industry’s failure to become truly inclusive as 91 per cent of people within in it are white, a fractional improvement on the previous 2011 Census when white people accounted for 92 per cent of the business.

PR Internships For All – PRIFA for short – is designed to change that, by getting the UK’s leading agencies to commit to taking talented young interns from other ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

Agencies are being tasked with hiring a set number of paid interns from universities outside the Russell Group within 12 months. Agencies with fewer than 50 employees are required to bring in one intern. Agencies with fewer than 100 employees will be required to take on a minimum of three interns; a minimum of five for those with between 100 and 200 employees; ten or more for agencies of more than 200 people. 

Agencies will also be able to take part in the campaign by hiring trainees from the Taylor Bennett Foundation's trainee programme. All interns must be hired for at least a month and be paid at least the Living Wage (or the London Living Wage).

Participating agencies will be able to enter the PR Internships Awards for free, and will benefit from ongoing coverage throughout the campaign.

Non-Russell Group universities can also join the campaign as partners. The PRIFA campaign will provide the opportunity for partner universities to introduce their interns to agencies in the programme.

PR and communications agencies taking part will be invited to get in touch with details of internships that they are seeking to fill, which will be placed on the PRCA jobs board and distributed to relevant participating universities.

The consultancies are encouraged to provide internship opportunities within their offices around the UK.

Partner universities will also be able to share details of their students who are seeking internships.