Everyone who has attended a Staffordshire company’s media training or crisis communications courses has said they would recommend their colleagues take the course too.

Based at DaisyBank Business Centre in Cheadle, Parker Piredda Limited specialises in all aspects of PR and marketing as well as devising and delivering a suite of both off-the-shelf and bespoke media and PR courses.

The company is owned and run by directors Tamsin Parker and Eleanor Piredda. Tamsin leads on the delivery of media training courses and the PR side of the business. Eleanor focusses on marketing strategy and delivery.

Parker Piredda has delivered courses and workshops to private sector companies, the NHS and housing associations in the Midlands. Over the next six months the courses are being rolled out across the UK with football clubs and housing associations among the key markets they will be targeting.

Tamsin, who has more than 26 years of journalistic experience working in newspapers, radio and TV as well as public and private communications and PR experience, has been devising and running bespoke media and PR training courses for more than 20 years.

She said: “When I left full-time journalism around 20 years ago I went to work in several highly political organisations, including a local authority and the NHS where I was advising senior leaders on reputational risk, crisis and media management, PR and communication strategy.

“They used to bring in external companies to deliver crisis comms or media training courses and I thought why do that when I could devise courses and bring them in-house? So that’s what I did, for whatever organisation I was working for at the time I devised and ran bespoke media training courses and they always got great feedback, so when I set up my first business it was a no brainer to launch media training as one of the key services.

“Now as Parker Piredda Limited we are delivering a wide range of courses including crisis communications, specific NHS media training as well as bespoke courses on PR and marketing and we’re adding to that all the time.”

She added: “As I still freelance as a journalist, I’m able to use my industry knowledge and skills to give course attendees a real picture of what the media landscape is now, how it’s changing and the steps they need to take if they want to actively promote a story and what to expect if a crisis hits.

“For many of the clients we work with – it’s really helping fill a skills gap within their teams as well as building confidence.”

Eleanor added: “How people view or perceive your brand externally impacts on every aspect of your marketing so protecting your brand’s reputation is essential. Often though companies and organisations don’t think about what might happen if they came under the media spotlight for the wrong reasons and our courses use Tamsin’s expertise to help them think about that.

“The feedback we get is fantastic because the sessions are a real mixture of practical exercises, industry insights and invaluable information that will help businesses learn how to protect their reputation, as well as helping them learn how they can maximise their PR opportunities. Attendees tell us that we’ve covered things that they never would have thought of before.”

Tamsin was a Broadcast Journalism and Sports Journalism lecturer at Staffordshire University for five years but left in 2022 to focus on growing Parker Piredda Limited and to continue to freelance in radio, working for both the BBC and Bauer.

Parker Piredda Ltd has entered the Skills for the Future category of the Staffordshire University Business Awards.