Welcome to the European Communication Professionals Skills & Innovation Programme (ECOPSI)
The ECOPSI (European Communication Professionals Skills and Innovation Programme) is a European funded project which aims to map and evaluate the current and future communication management skills of practitioners across Europe.
The context for this project is a communication sector in Europe which has grown and developed significantly in the last 20 years. This expansion has been influenced by political, economic and cultural shifts which have seen profit and non-profit organisations equally recognise the role and significance of communication in achieving organisational goals. These include managing reputation and image as key assets of organisations.
Project information
The ECOPSI project aims to map and understand the actions and activities of communicators specifically in this European landscape to build knowledge and understanding of what they do but also what skills and knowledge they need to develop to have a shared meaning and understanding of the practice. Specifically the ECOPSI programme aims: To map and evaluate the current and future communication management skills of practitioners across Europe and Fill a competency, skills and knowledge gap in the field of professional communication management by providing open source information resources for communication practitioner skills diagnosis and development.
News
Partners
This innovative programme is a partnership of six leading European universities in communication research and education. The partners have developed a research programme to reach out to all regions of the European landscape.
The ECOPSI project director is Professor Ralph Tench from Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. A key aim and outcome of this project is to build a European theory of communication management and a framework to support the professionalisation and ethical development of the practice.
|
Name |
Organisation |
Country |
|
Professor Ralph Tench |
Leeds Metropolitan University |
UK |
|
Dr Paul Quantock |
TFEI |
UK |
|
Nora Beilke |
EACD |
Brussels |
|
Professor Ayla Okay |
University of Istanbul |
Turkey |
|
Professor Dr Ansgar Zerfass |
University of Leipzig |
Germany |
|
Dr Piet Verhoeven |
University of Amsterdam |
Netherlands |
|
Professor Maria Angeles Moreno |
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos |
Spain |
|
Professor Dejan Vercic |
University of Ljubljana |
Slovenia |
Links
www.communicationmonitor.eu
www.euprera.org
www.eacd-online.eu
http://ec.europa.eu/education/index_en.htm
Impact
The impact of the programme will be increased awareness of the competence and capability factors of communication professionals in Europe to key stakeholders. The programme will improve the cooperation between European communication practice communities and enhance transparency of the sector as well as the skills employed and required by practitioners through awareness in and availability of life long learning opportunities. The vision is to improve the professionalism of practitioners across Europe as well as their ability to work across borders in a European and wider international community of communication practitioners.
Outputs
The main outputs of the project will be:
- An ECOPSI Mapping Report to identify entry and continuing professional development needs for communication practitioners in order to develop a ‘principles’ model of communication skills competence.
- An open source ECOPSI Portal to collect and disseminate best practice resources for enhancing professional communicators’ skills and knowledge.
- A self diagnosis/assessment facility of skills needs
- An ECOPSI Network with communication practitioners across Europe
- The establishment of the ECOPSI Foundation of an ‘Excellence Centre in Communication Management’ to ensure the sustainability of the project results.
ECOPSI Benchmark Preliminary Report May 2012
ECOPSI Research Report May 2013
Conferences and presentations
- Tench, R., Moreno, A. and Vercic, D. (2012) ‘Future skills and competencies of communications practitioners in Europe’. Keynote panel at the EUPRERA Congress, Researching the Changing Profession of Public Relations, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey, 20-22 September 2012
- Tench, R. and Zerfass, A. (2012) ‘Future strategies and competencies for communication executives’. European Communication Summit 2012, EACD, Brussels, 5-6th July 2012
- Tench, R. (2012) ‘Global Issues and Opportunities: International and Cross-Cultural Research in Public Relations’ Extended session at the International Communication Association Conference, Communication and Community, 62nd Annual Conference, Phoenix, USA, 24-28th May 2012
- Tench, R. (2012) ‘Future competencies for communication managers – a European perspective, Leadership Forum 2012, Academic Society for Corporate Management and Communication, Berlin 29-30th March 2012
Journals and books
- Tench, R. and Yeomans L. Future issues for Public Relations in Tench, R. and Yeomans, L. Eds (2013 pending) Exploring Public Relations. 3rd Edition, Pearson Education/Prentice Hall ISBN 978
- Tench, R. (2012) ‘Communication management – current trends and issues’, Editor, B van Rule, Netherlands.
Timescales
The following diagram is a simplified representation of the process and activities we have agreed to develop over the next two years:
Contacts
Impact
