I figured it was about time I got myself a PR qualification, so today’s my first day studying for the CIPR Diploma in Public Relations.

I’d been thinking about studying for a while, but had been struggling with the course venues being in London and centres throughout the UK, but none particularly near home.

With a young family, a full-time job, a consultancy business and a bit of a social life, there just wasn’t the time to commit to travelling more than two hours regularly for face to face learning.

So when CIPR launched the online learning route for the diploma, I was keen to sign up.

Having studied for Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications by distance learning I’m aware of the pitfalls and challenges that distance learning presents, so it’ll be interesting to see how technology is used to minimise these.

So far the Moodle-based seems quite straightforward and has some interesting features that may well enhance the learning experience.

From the course I hope to be able to underpin my PR experience with a solid theoretical base as well as develop my analytical and decision-making skills in PR.

I came into PR from a pure marketing background, so while I have PR experience, the theory will really help (I like theories and reasoning, it’s just the way I am).

One of the joys of studying is learning with other people and debating issues to increase depth of understanding, so hopefully the other people on the course and the technology will come together to make this happen.

Plus, of course, hopefully the other students on the course will be good professional contacts for the future.

It’ll also be interesting to see how studying affects my blogging. I’ll still be making the time to blog, but I suspect there will be a few posts that are influenced by what I’m studying at the time.

The course lasts one year, so hopefully next summer I’ll be celebrating passing the diploma – fingers crossed!

[tags]CIPR, chartered+institute+of+public+relations, CIPR+Diploma[/tags]