The Middle East Public Relations Association (Mepra) is offering four new training courses for the region’s public relations professionals across Dubai and Abu Dhabi in May, as it gets set to expand its Mepra Academy later this year.

Mepra is the trade association for the region’s communications industry, which brings together leading public relations consultancies and in-house communications teams to drive industry growth, set standards of excellence and build capabilities of its professionals.

May’s Mepra training courses begin with a course on Corporate Social Responsibility, a key strategic concern for many organisations during this Year of Giving in the UAE. The course will focus on developing strategies that create tangible benefit for both society and brands.

Jennifer Bell, an award-winning UK correspondent and former senior editor at The National, will then host a session on writing skills, a core competency for industry professionals.

Later in the month, Mepra will run a course on using data effectively to drive digital communications strategies. Data collection and measurement are critical to demonstrating the value of public relations campaigns and securing budgets in challenging economic times.

The final Mepra course of the month will focus on content-driven social media campaigning with speakers from Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Last year’s Mepra Benchmark survey found that social media campaigning had overtaken traditional media relations to become the largest business area for the regional public relations industry for the first time.

Three of the four courses will be held in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi to provide easier access to training and development for the hundreds of communications professionals working across the UAE.

Each course will be recognised within a continuous professional development framework, developed in partnership with the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), and part of the Academy expansion later this year. All training delivered by Mepra will count towards becoming a CIPR and Mepra accredited or chartered public relations practitioner.

Ray Eglington, chairman of Mepra, said: “Helping improve the effectiveness of the region’s public relations industry through training and development is a core part of our mission at Mepra. These new courses will become part of our new plans for Mepra Academy, which we are looking forward to unveiling in full later in the year.

“I am particularly pleased these courses are being offered in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, giving more communication professionals the opportunity to participate.” – TradeArabia News Service