Communications and Public Relations

Business Administration – Certificate

The Certificate in Business Administration (CBA) is a flexible 13-week program designed to fit the needs of mid-career professionals, full-time employees and people looking for professional development. Learn about business administration, marketing, technology and more.
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Business Administration – Diploma

The Diploma in Business Administration (DBA) is a comprehensive business administration program designed to give you the practical knowledge and skills required for professional success. You'll learn business administration, business writing, management computing, financial accounting, marketing, small business management, international business and more.
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Business Communication

Effective communication skills can help you go places. This versatile program provides practical information and easily applied strategies to help you become a confident communicator in any industry.
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General Studies

This flexible certificate program allows you to customize a course of study to meet your specific learning goals.
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Health Terminology Standards

The Health Terminology Standards professional certificate is a one-year, part-time, online non-credit program. After graduation of the program, you will be eligible for the Canadian College of Health Information Management Certified Terminology Standards Specialist (CTSS) credential.
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Organizational Preparedness and Adaptability

A six-week online program to help you become more proactive, rather than reactive, and to prepare your organization to withstand any crisis.
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Public Relations

The online Public Relations diploma program gives you the theory, skills and credential you need to set yourself apart in the competitive public relations and communication industry. This program is beneficial to those working in either public or private sector, and can be an excellent professional development option for virtually any career level.
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A recent study by the Harvard Business Review shows that "quiet quitting" is not about the work ethic of individual employees, but a response to the relationship (or lack thereof) with their employers. Leaders in today's workplaces must work harder than ever to maintain an engaged team, and traditional leadership skills are no longer enough.

The thought of pursuing digital communication stood out to instructor Liz Pittman like a rainbow glowing in the sky after a heavy rainfall. Social media can be a great community building tool, she says.

Filling your resume with a long list of technical skills is no longer enough to impress potential employers. Instead, soft skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and time management have become just as important to make your resume stand out amongst a pile of applicants.

Sports enthusiast Sarah MacNeil found herself working in the field of recreation from 2012 to 2017. It seemed to make the most sense for her at the time after getting an undergraduate degree in recreation management and with her diverse background in sports. 

Communication skills add value to individuals consuming and disseminating messages; when individuals become better communicators, they become better in all areas of decision-making.

As a new public relations (PR) graduate, your first position with an organization may include the responsibility of reviewer and editor. In this role, you’ll be responsible to provide editorial support for all corporate material before it is published, including reports, presentations, letters, etc.

From student to teacher to programming administrator, and now back to student, Susana Inés Torres Herrera's experiences in the education world have come full circle. It’s no surprise that Susy works in education as she’s been surrounded by it her whole life.

Allison Boyd is a recent graduate of the Public Relations diploma program. We asked her a few questions about her experience in the PR program here at Continuing Studies at UVic.

Paula Duncan is a recent graduate of the Public Relations diploma program. We asked her a few questions about her experience in the PR program here at Continuing Studies at UVic.

Kate McKenna is a recent graduate of the Public Relations diploma program and winner of the CPRS/CISION 2020 Student Excellence Award. We asked her a few questions about her experience in the PR program here at Continuing Studies at UVic.

“WHAT TO DO IF A METEOR LANDS ON OUR BUILDING.” Of all the emergency preparedness plans I have encountered, this one stands out as most memorable.

How do corporate communicators, working on communicating the transition back to work, ensure we are being ethical in our communication to colleagues while meeting our obligations to our employers?

Read articles by Public Relations instructors and graduates and find out important PR program news.

In PR, storytelling is important because it allows us to connect with our audience and potentially influence their emotions and ideas. A good story is more persuasive than purely factual content because stories are engaging; listeners and readers always find ways to relate to and empathize with characters in a story.

A public crisis places tremendous pressure on nearly all internal structures of an organization. Being prepared with some key guiding principles in hand will empower you to show leadership exactly when it is most crucial, but also the most dangerous. 

When you land in your first leadership role, you will likely find yourself tempted by some of the common snares that can befall an emerging leader. In this article we explore five of the most common mistakes made by emerging leaders. 

To the average PR professional, the word "spin" does not have a positive connotation. But Michelle Mitchell, a graduate of the Public Relations diploma program at Continuing Studies, is not your average PR professional. She loves to spin!

The weeks leading up to the convocation ceremonies are always exciting at Continuing Studies at UVic, as we celebrate the accomplishments of our many graduates.

Influencer marketing has exploded over the last couple of years. If you are not familiar with this term, it is basically about promoting your brand through a selection of influencers, hoping that these influencers will in turn promote it to their own extensive networks. Sounds like a quick and simple way to reach a wide and targeted audience, right? The catch is in doing it properly. 

Stakeholder engagement is defined as the process of involving "any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives" (E. Freeman).  It is a key component in the practice of Public Relations (PR), so much so that we offer a new PR elective course, Community and Stakeholder Relations, dedicated to it. 

Would you like to have more influence in your professional or personal life and impress others with the merits of your ideas?  Are you ready to master the art of persuasion?  How many times have you presented an idea in a team meeting only to have your idea fall flat? Have you ever pitched an idea to your boss and got a blank stare?

Public Relations really chose me more than I chose it. Throughout my life I’ve always been an outgoing and gregarious person who enjoys bringing diverse personalities together. From a career perspective I’ve naturally gravitated to roles that allow me to interact with the public and work with people to achieve mutual understanding and consensus.

One of the brightest smiles and bubbliest personalities in our office belongs to Laura Vizina, our Director of Health Sciences and Public Relations Programs.

An update from our Public Relations Diploma program: new elective Leadership Excellence in PR, Q &A with instructor Anna Marie White, 2019 Schedule, Convocation News and more...

What do you get when you mix a journalist with a track athlete, a forest-firefighter from the Yukon, a government civil servant, a philanthropist, a writer and a teacher together? Just a few lines of this man’s CV.

Fraud has many roots, but one of them stems from weakened minds nurtured by the fraudulent use of information. Buying-in to fraudulent facts, data, and reason at any level has dire consequences.

It’s always fun to see the names of our students and alumni pop up in the news from time to time, and it was particularly exciting this past week when we saw that one of our alumni, Sandra Richardson, is being awarded the Order of British C

Have you ever wanted to design your own credential? Have you ever struggled to find a program that meets your specific interests and needs? Then you might be interested in our newest program: the Certificate in General Studies.

"This program gave me the credential to step forward and demonstrate new skills to my employer."

My career in communications began in 1987 upon graduation from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. I graduated with a degree in communications and was lucky enough to secure a coveted internship at KATU Channel 2 (an ABC affiliate) working as assistant producer of a local children's television show.