Let Round Two Commence

After a relaxing Christmas and New Year break, I'm back at the Public Transport Authority for the second half of my placement. This time I am in the Corporate Communications department, and my first week has been an absolute ball!

After a day of acquainting myself with the major projects that the team were handling, I found myself observing the media monitoring process at the PTA. They use the program Isentia, and after watching for one day I had the opportunity to complete the process myself. The most challenging part was choosing which article to include in the final report, and which articles were the most important or interesting to those that would read the report. Using the program was quite simple - even creating the report was automatically done for you! It created a sleek report that was easy to read and understand, and allowed all readers to quickly grasp the gist of each article.

My favourite task so far has been the auditing of the Right Track educational website. I started off simply going through the website and seeing whether the content was up to date and relevant to the key audience. Once I had completed that task, I was able to use the content management system (CMS) DotNetNuke to go into the website and edit the content. So far I have managed to update some pages and include some pictures and newer content. I am so looking forward to updating even more of the website next week!

I've had a great insight over the past week as to what the everyday activities of a public relations professional really is. A lot of the work revolves around keeping on top of media and stakeholder enquiries, with emails flying back and forth all day long.

My first week back at the PTA has been interesting and eye-opening, and I cannot wait to see what the next week brings.

Half Time Break

We all know that time passes much too quickly these days, and the first half of my internship has absolutely flown by! Now that I am halfway through, here are my thoughts on the tasks and issues I have faced so far.

One of my favourite tasks that I have completed so far is my public relations plan for the Transperth Get on Board educational program. This program is primarily used by primary schools, to promote the safe and responsible use of public transport. The program also includes a station tour, where Transperth employees show children how to safely use the public transport facilities available to them. The program has been around for years, however, they have had little to no promotional activities available to them. That is where I came in - I created a plan based around enlisting parents and teachers to get on board (pardon the pun) with the program, and to encourage their children to learn about public transport in a fun and safe manner. 

One of the major challenges I faced when creating the plan was a lack of background knowledge on who the program had already targeted, and how to overcome the lack of promotional efforts when there was no set budget. I found that a lot of the ideas that I had would have cost way too much money in the end, and that it was quite difficult to try and limit myself to smaller activities that would be more within budget. 

I have also really enjoyed being able to experience what it is like to work in an office full time, and how one must learn to motivate and support themselves to ensure that each piece of work is completed to the best of their abilities. Being in front of a computer all day is a big change from the average casual job, however I found that I was able to get many tasks completed in one day, and managed to keep up with all the smaller tasks that were assigned to me over the past two weeks. Almost every day there would be more information to slot into spreadsheets, and more events to organise or begin to plan for the upcoming year. You don't realise just how busy you will be until you check the clock and it is almost time to go home!

Overall, the first half of my placement has been great. The people that I have worked with have all been very helpful and welcoming, even if I had to ask a hundred questions before I understood what they wanted me to do. They have all been very willing to lend a hand, and have been very encouraging and grateful for the help that I have been able to give them. 

Now it is time for a short break for Christmas, then back to finish the final half of my placement - I cannot wait!