COOP Trainee - Public Relations

Role objective

Learn how organisations build trust with external stakeholders through clear messaging, media relations, reputation management, events, executive communication, research and disciplined response during both normal and sensitive situations.

What you will work on

• Research media outlets, journalists, influencers, communities, stakeholders and relevant public conversations.
• Support press releases, media briefs, executive talking points, invitations, event communication, announcements and stakeholder correspondence.
• Monitor coverage and public conversation and help categorise sentiment, relevance, risk and required action.
• Support media lists, outreach preparation, event coordination, interview preparation and post-event reporting.
• Help verify facts, names, titles, dates, claims and approvals before external communication is released.
• Participate in scenario planning for reputation issues and learn escalation and crisis-communication discipline.

What you should learn

• How reputation is built through consistency between what an organisation says and what it does.
• How audience, message, channel, timing, spokesperson, evidence and approval affect communication quality.
• How media relations differs from advertising and why relevance matters more than mass distribution.
• How calm, factual communication reduces uncertainty during sensitive situations.

Who should apply

• Student in public relations, communications, media, journalism, marketing, business or a related discipline.
• Strong writing and research habits with careful attention to facts, names, tone and context.
• Comfortable communicating professionally and thinking about how different audiences may interpret the same message.
• Arabic and English capability is valuable; strong judgment is more important than being highly extroverted.

What strong performance looks like

• Produces accurate, audience-aware communication.
• Checks facts before publishing.
• Recognises reputation risks early.
• Responds calmly and escalates appropriately when information is incomplete or sensitive.

Common eligibility

• Current university or college student eligible for a formal cooperative training (COOP) placement.
• Able to provide the university COOP letter and complete the required training period.
• Available to work from Jeddah according to the programme schedule and AY work requirements.
• Comfortable receiving direct feedback, revising work, and learning unfamiliar tools or subjects.
• Professional Arabic and/or English communication appropriate to the selected role.
• Previous professional experience is not required. Evidence of initiative, projects, coursework, self-learning, clubs, competitions, volunteering or personal work is valuable.

How we select

We do not reject a trainee simply for lacking a specific commercial tool. We separate quickly teachable tool knowledge from harder-to-teach traits such as reasoning, integrity, learning velocity, ownership, curiosity, discipline and communication. AY does not expect a trainee to arrive as an expert; it does expect visible improvement, preparation and responsiveness to feedback.

Assessment

Every applicant completes the AY COOP Common Potential Assessment (15 questions, 50% of the score) and then the role module for the position applied to (8 questions, 50%). The assessment evaluates potential rather than years of experience: reasoning, learning agility, ownership, ethics, communication and data sense, plus role fundamentals and applied judgment.

About the programme

COOP at AY is designed to identify and accelerate high-potential people, not simply to provide observation hours. Trainees learn by solving real problems, working within clear standards, receiving frequent feedback, and producing useful outcomes under supervision. Our principles: Bayan (clarity), Al-Asl (authenticity), An-Nama (growth), Al-Yusr wal-Yaqin (ease and certainty), and one system, one accountability.

Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia  |  Programme type: College Cooperative Training / COOP  |  Experience level: Student / Pre-graduation