No relevant education? Not a problem in Public Affairs apparently...
A challenge with self-taught Public Affairs Pros
Back in December, I talked to a senior commercial executive from a global healthcare company, who said he had a hard time of assessing and comparing PA pros, as their educational backgrounds were too different and not necessarily relatable to Public Affairs.
He compared the recruitment of PA pros with recruiting Change (Project) Managers/Controllers. When they did, they almost always required the candidate to hold a certification in Change Management e.g. Prosci/ADKAR/CCMP or the like, depending on the role.
So he was basically just pointing out that PA pros come with very different educational backgrounds, often very generalist, and not directly related to Public Affairs. Of course other working experiences mattered a lot also, but how could he know for sure that these candidates even possessed basic knowledge about Public Affairs, when they clearly hadn’t studied it?
I must admit, I thought he had a point. Even though many professions are based on learning by doing, PA Pros are far from being a homogenic group. The Public Affairs Manager Survey 2025 confirms this, with the following split based on 93 interviews:
“ Educational background in the Public Affairs functions:
Political science - 60%
Law - 25%
Journalism - 8%
Specialists e.g. data, engineers, healthcare <6% “
When I told him about these results he said: “Would 10 candidates with these backgrounds even be able to define Public Affairs somewhat the same, if I asked?” he asked me.
I am pretty sure they would not.
No relevant education? Not a problem here
We were discussing a recruitment for a Nordic PA head, the organization was in the midst of. In his view, the candidates all had different backgrounds, albeit some similarities, but he felt he was just mainly assessing them either based on their last job or who they knew in politics. Their academic merits seemed to be irrelevant, he argued, as they could hardly be compared or at least linked to the skills required for the vacant position.
In his view PA pros who was considered for the role seemed not to have any specific relevant education, typically more a generalist background from political science or communication - and this made it hard to assess and maybe also predict how they would be able to handle specific tasks, because there was no common denominator for being a “Public Affairs Professional” at high level they were recruiting for.
No certifications and courses are a waste of time
I have for a while been thinking a bit about this challenge in Public Affairs. Especially when I was asked to assess the mentioned job posting described above as well as look at a few candidates. They were just very, very different and even “Masters in Politcal Science” differ a lot across Europe - and there are no guarantees that they have included courses in Public Affairs.
So the arguments from the senior exec are right on (minimum) two points:
The majority of people working in Public Affairs are self-taught. This means their approach to PA is formed by whoever trained them or introduced them to PA in their first jobs - this is very random
There aren’t any legitimate Public Affairs courses or - even better - certifications, which can be assessed and assure the employer about the skill-set
To comment on the second point, this is a fair critique. Could you even mention one certification in Public Affairs that is respected and considered legitimate outside more than one country? In most countries there aren’t even any certifications. But there are many “courses” in Public Affairs, typically driven by a PA agency. And if you look at how these courses are built it is just always the same: Case studies, anecdotes, hot shot names, one course per quarter and here is the list with the other participants.
But this does not provide any training in methodologies, skills or frameworks of any kind. Entertaining maybe, but not value for money if you are a team leader sending your team members on one of these types of courses.
So why is this the case in Public Affairs? Why aren’t there any respected, legitimate certifications in Public Affairs? Why haven’t some of the recruiters or maybe even more obvious e.g. the Public Affairs Council seized this opportunity? In terms of the latter, their current certifications seems very generic or outdated - and I don’t think I have ever met someone who have taken one of their certificates.
So, to sum up, I think there is both a big, big challenge with the lack of education (or at least certifications) in Public Affairs, but it is also a major opportunity for someone willing to pursue it - just look at similar certifications in Change Management like Prosci or in marketing with “the Mini MBA” by Mark Ritson - incredible interesting, relevant and useful.
If I was looking for obtaining new skills I would go for one of these two, rather than the ones in my own industry. And thats very telling, don’t you think?