They say “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” for a reason. A private PR educational project generates hundreds of thousands of euros for two young women who came up with the idea of unveiling the secrets of the public relations profession to those interested. Two SNSPA graduates, Adelina Bortan and Raluca Cristea, with 8 years of experience in PR (television and public sector), opened the door to a different kind of school, where associate lecturers – “all celebrities in their line of work”, according to Adelina Bortan – teach students how to become successful in this profession. Why PR? “Because it’s an applied profession… theory without practice means nothing in this field. The Romanian education system performs poorly in this respect”. By all means, the after-work classes target not only PR graduates, but the general public – from students, multinational employees, entrepreneurs to people passionate about the communication industry.
They called their project “Naked PR”, because it “strips” this field of all its enigmas. Tha launch came last autumn – by now, the two founders say the total investment had reached 8,000 euros. “We were facing two big problems:
the workshop market was in a slump: because of the financial crisis, people were only focusing on their jobs and making ends meet. Besides, the communication/PR niche was already pretty crowded. So we had no choice but to come out with a different concept. We opted for tailored content, in order to better emphasize the distinctive features of each and every market segment. We were afraid though that the PR market segments weren’t advanced enough to justify such a differentiation”, confesses Raluca Cristea.
Eventually, their fears proved unfounded: “220 students enrolled in the two sessions in autumn and spring. By comparison, a strong communication college has a yearly cohort of 300 students”, says Raluca Cristea.
In her words, it would be very difficult to draw a standard portrait of the average Naked PR student. What they all share is passion. The curricula tought here includes subjects such as Business PR or Fashion PR. Lately, Political PR and Film&Actors PR gained popularity. This fall, new courses, such as bad weather PR, social media, health and wellbeing PR were introduced. Classes will begin on October 13. For a seven-classes course, the price ranges between 720 and 900 de lei.
The really is life after work
The local after work market is packed with creativity or personal development workshops, from painting, drawing, gastronomy, interior design to lifecoaching, dance or music classes. Dalles Go, the most popular after work platform, boasts some 1,500 alumni. Since Romanian women became more and more interested in do-it-yourself makeup techniques, there are private schools, such as ILBAH, offering makeup workshops at a 450 lei price. The course lasts only 2 days and it consists of highlighting personal traits and corrective tips, as well as an analysis of the makeup types that suit one the best.
Acting classes are sought after too. Actoriedefilm.ro, a school launched back in 2010 by actors Dragos Bucur, Dorian Boguta and Alexandru Papadopol, has over 200 alumni and an impressive portofolio: five short films, seven medium-length films and two feature films, Love Building and Another Love Building, “both featuring graduates of our acting school. Some of the movies were selected by national and international film festivals”, say the founders, looking forward to the 27th of October, when the 8th edition of the acting workshops will be launched. Price: 350 euros/month for a six-month course.
900 lei is the cost of six-months long PR workshop; meetings are held on a weekly basis, after work hours.
