The Public Relations Association of Indonesia (Perhumas) has announced plans to establish a certification agency, on par with international standards, to verify expertise among Indonesia’s public relations specialists.
The establishment of the agency is one of the organization’s main programs to support Indonesia’s public relations specialists, Perhumas chairman Muslim Basya said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“We have discussed the plan with the governmental public relations coordinating board [Bakohumas], and we fully recognize that the certification agency is important for the profession,” Muslim told The Jakarta Post at the two-day public relations convention in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The convention, themed “Powering Public Relations Excellence”, was attended by 250 practitioners from across Indonesia. The convention will conclude today.
In 2008, Perhumas and Bakohumas created their own Indonesian National Working Competency Standard (SKKNI) to assess public relations professionals.
All public relations professionals should meet the competency standards, Muslim said.
“The proposed certification body would conduct regular tests to make sure that people in the PR business are qualified,” he said.
However, the establishment of the agency would take time because it would need support not only from government but also from business entities, as end users of the profession, Muslim said.
“We hope the certification institution can be established next year. However, we need support from Bakohumas to make it a reality,”
he said.
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar, who also attended the convention, said the agency was an important way to improve the professionalism of public relation practitioners.
“This [agency] will prove that not everyone can be public relation practitioners. That is why I support its establishment,” Mustafa said. Although the association and minister has agreed that the certification institution was quite important, Muslim said that he expected the public relations practitioners to fulfill the competency standard first.
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