CA is not about journalism only

Immaculate Foimae is currently undergoing a two year graduate program with the Public Relations department at OK Tedi.

A Media Officer recruit at OK Tedi

She wears a uniform that reflect back the sun rays and booths that are shiny black. She wakes up at five o’clock every morning and get ready to face the days challenge with thoughtful mind and encouraging spirit. Looking across at anyone, she smiles cheerfully knowing that she can handle the tasks that is set each day with great ambition, showcasing skills learn in her four year in the Communication Arts Program at Divine Word University.

Immaculate Foimae, a Communication Arts graduate this year is now enjoying a very challenging career in the male dominated field. She was one among a few students selected from Divine Word University to benefit from OK Tedi Mining Limited Undergraduate Program. OK Tedi Mining Limited which was a state owned that operated an open-pit copper, gold and silver mine located in the Star Mountains of the Western Province. Currently, she is working with the Public Relations team under the Communication and Public Relations Department undergoing further trainings to enhance her skills dealing with different forms of communication offline and online.

Being a Communication Arts student is not about getting employed by media organizations. “There are much more exciting and challenging career ahead to explore after graduating from this program,” said Immaculate Foimae. She further elaborated that when she was first accepted to further her study in this program in 2011, she thought that the skills learn will enable her to find employment with the media organizations. However, in her next three years of study, she discovered that the units learn aided her to explore numerous communication skills which are essential in different walks of life.

As a female communicator employed by world recognized company, Immaculate says that this program equipped her to tackle different communication situations using different approaches. Disseminating information of such company to the target audience and general public, she mentioned that communication approach used must be appropriate. Additionally, she says that very little information about the company is critical and sensitive; thus, approval comes from the management whether to disseminate it or not. Immaculate further stated that communication arts units are vital because she can now communicate effectively with different people using different mediums of communication to ensure accuracy and facts is disseminated to the target audiences.

In addition, studying Communication Arts Program in Divine Word University, Madang is very exciting and rewarding. This program offers a variety of courses within the department itself as well as other departments such as Business Studies, Social and Religious Studies, Information System and Papua New Guinea and International Relations. These units are interrelated as the main aim is to produce quality students who are fully equipped and can be able to work as journalists in media organizations and also communicators in private and public organizations.

Louise Mary Kodor is also Communication Arts graduate who is currently employed with the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands in Port Moresby. She works as a communication person coordinating the media, press releases, secretarial work as well as writing for the Catholic Reporter newspaper. She stated that this program equipped her with skills of communicating effectively with different people nationally and internationally in a church run organization.

Louise Mary Kodor is currently working as the communication officer for the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and a reporter for Catholic newspaper.

Doing writing and communication tasks for private and public organizations are totally different from mass media organizations. The difference is media organizations are dealing with daily news and their target audience is the general public. As for the public and private organization, their target audiences are potential investors, employees, development partners, stakeholders, communities they operate in, church believers and the list goes on.

Louise Mary proudly said ‘Communication Arts program is flexible in meaning’. She means that it’s not restricted to media alone but includes every day communication. Another student, Immaculate Foimae stated that doing writing and publishing online and offline is specifically for that company only. “The main aim was to protect the reputation of the company targeting audiences that are vulnerable to effects of their actions or their development partners,” she said. In addition, this program seems boring but after all, the employment opportunities are exciting and many.

 E-Learning Teaching and Instructional Designer

Zulieka Winfrey is the E-Learning Teaching and Instructional Designer for Online Learning at Divine Word University in Madang Province.

Right now my job is very challenging because I have to study, work and undergo training at the same time. So, juggling like a clown in a circus is challenging for me. I graduated on a Sunday and by Monday I was given a form from DWU HR to sign for the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and Learning program. It’s kind of compulsory for us new graduates. You can’t teach here without a teaching qualification. It is a very challenging one year program consisting of four Units. I feel nervous in class sometimes because we have so many very experienced lecturers as fellow students. I have a lot of respect for them and I am learning a lot from their contributions in class.
The Bachelor of Communication Arts, as you all know, is not a pure journalism program. Rather it consists of a variety of units from within as well as outside the department. These units have been designed by extremely competent lecturers who know what the PNG Workforce expects from us.

Knowledge, skills, values and attitudes gained through the CA program have prepared me to meet the challenges of my job. The theoretical knowledge and practical skills you acquire from using software programs and internet tools are priceless. So, please make the most of your learning opportunities. Currently I am being trained under Amuthageetha Nagarajan, DWU Online Education Director. This training is both academic and technical – I am specializing in online teaching and online instructional design. My job also requires excellent oral and written communication skills in order to provide support to our lecturers in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences in delivering unit content via Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) – which is the open source learning platform officially used by DWU.
I have to be knowledgeable in E-learning strategies so that when lecturers submit their lesson guides, I should be confident in selecting Moodle modules, internet technologies and online tools that will produce the best teaching and learning experience for DWU students and lecturers. That’s the fun part for me because I love research and creativity! Yes, I did mention research. My superior and mentor Amutha also encourages a lot of reading and research so I do a little bit of that each day just to learn more about my work.
Finally, with the DWU Online Studies, program content must be perfect before publication to the global community, so, yes, meticulous editing skills are demanded here as well (and not just in the studio or news room!). If you are a CA student, you should count your blessings.

Read more about Zuleika Winfrey: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/zuleika-winfrey/b5/602/101