TheCable

Nigerian Women in Public Relations (NGWiPR) has encouraged senior professionals in the industry to learn from their young counterparts.

The collective made the call during the just-concluded two-day reverse mentorship workshop.

The workshop, themed ‘Building Brands, Leveraging Trends, and Managing Complex Teams’, was designed for female industry experts with over 15 years experience to learn from their young counterparts.

Speaking at the event, Tolulope Olorundero, the founder of NGWiPR, said the aim of the workshop is to expand the capabilities of veterans in the industry.

“To effectively manage an increasingly young communications team that constantly proposes the use of apps and platforms being introduced daily, one way to ensure that senior professionals keep up is reverse mentorship,” she said.

“The world is changing daily and the public relations industry must rise up to the occasion to design upskilling programmes for veteran professionals who lead communications at the highest levels in organisations.”

Eloïne Barry, the CEO of African Media, in her keynote speech, emphasised the need for senior professionals to “speak the language of the youth”, noting that innovation in the PR industry cannot be achieved “through the lens of a 50-year-old”.

“In the continent that we work in, we cannot speak the language of the past for the youths. Who I have learnt from the most in the work we are doing is from the youth — and this is the future,” she said.

“More than 60% of the people on the continent are under 25, so if we want to build a service or innovate, we cannot do it through the lens of a 50-year-old.”

NGWiPR, established in 2019, is an independent social impact organisation created to support, inspire and empower female public relations professionals while improving access to career-advancing opportunities.