Build an exciting and fulfilling career in criminology with globally marketable bachelor's and master's courses in public policy from world-class universities.
The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted, a quote by Elizabeth Dole, briefly explains the core behind public policy. From a more generic perspective, public policy is a system of laws, regulatory measures, behaviours, and courses of action adopted by the government for the public. Or a set of rules to address issues within the society. Public policies can take years to be implemented and developed and show their outcome. Although technically, public policy existed in society for ages, the official term and its umbrella emerged in the 1960s, encompassing various disciplines like political science, sociology, public administration, and economics. A public policy major allows a graduate to develop, implement and evaluate policy solutions for the problems that the society is facing.
- Learn how to research, flourish and construct military theories, practices, equipment, strategies, and technologies while understanding military organisations, analysis of security threats as well as the art of warfare.
- Become an intellect in many subjects including psychology, engineering, strategy and tactics making, logistics technology, electronics, history, and philosophy related to military services and execution
- Improve your resource management and planning skills, leadership skills, executive abilities, professional ethics, and of course military skills with both practical and theoretical classes in BSc and MSc courses in military sciences.
- Apply what you learn in real-time with experimental and task-based learning as military sciences use descriptive theory based on analysing situations where the factors and environment variables are unknown, making it a more practical approach towards executing military services as well as common civilian duties.
- The usually low cost and interdisciplinary nature of bachelor's and master's degrees in military sciences make these attractive options for students and often pay off with lucrative career prospects, both in military training and outside of it.
Top Marketable Careers for Public Policy Course Graduates
Public policy graduates have been seen working around various, sometimes interdisciplinary, sections of the career map. While it's a common method to get into civil services at the local, state or central/federal level, many public policy degree holders are working as directors and CEOs of private companies and nonprofits. A career in public policy, after graduating with BA in public policy ( some universities offer a BSc in public policy) or MA in public policy (some universities offer MSc in public policy) enables an individual to craft and enact policies to promote public well-being. Consulting and legal careers are open to working at, as well. The bottom line is you get the key to open the doors of all three world's i.e private career paths, government sector professions, and non-profit organizations. Here are a few careers, from the many, you can choose
Policy Analyst
Policy analyst itself might seem a profile with a broad spectrum, which in fact is true. A policy analyst influences public policy by examining, scrutinising, and evaluating its efficiency. The fundamental day-to-day work life includes tasks like verifying whether the imposed policies meet their objectives, reviewing and amending policy drafts, and providing suggestions for improvement. Creating awareness about a social or a political issue is their secondary work, which is even more impactful. They also process documents regarding these policies and are involved in the promulgation of information to stakeholders.
Policy analysts can work in fields like education, law, science, business, economics, urban planning, and most commonly in national/federal government as the brain-trust to research, analyse and offer advice on trivial and non-trivial matters. They also work for special interest groups and non-profit organisations. Individuals with a collaborative mindset and interest in their countries' policies are fit for this career path. Working as an intern in a lawmaker's office and participating in extracurricular activities like business organisation clubs and debates will help you gain confidence as a policy analyst even before you begin your career.
Public Relations Specialist
A PR Specialist is someone responsible for communicating with the public to create and maintain a positive image, acting as a spokesperson of an organisation, company, individual, government, or political party. This includes understanding groups or individuals' cultures, values, and attitudes and making sure it fits the society the group resides in. As a public policy graduate, you’ll have insights and knowledge about how the public perceives things and how your brand can help improve the quality of their daily life. You get to collaborate with many other areas of your organisation from time to time to understand what and how exactly things are going to make an impact.
Being a very crucial tool of an organisation, a PR specialist must utilise psychological and sociological knowledge and skills to carry forward the image of the organisation. This may include writing press releases, connecting and maintaining relationships with journalists, and drafting speeches for company frontmen. With booming technology and the effect of social media, PR specialists are often required to harness the power of them and maintain a brand’s social media. You can start with internships in PR during your Bachelor's or master's degree in public policy and move up the career track.
Lobbyist
Lobbyists influence governmental decisions by petitioning government officials and legislative departments, often representing the interests of a business or a group to legislators. They are professional advocates involved in the creation and implementation of new laws and policies. They develop materials to promote and represent their client’s causes, research existing issues and policies, and explain the impact of legislation or law, or bills which were passed by the government to their clients.
They often need to develop relationships with politicians and legislators and other government bodies to collaborate with and present their objectives. They also provide reports to the state for total transparency of the lobbying process and changes it brought into society. They are hired by various types of industries, from business associations to insurance companies, and may specialise in a particular field.
Market Researcher
Market researchers are professionals responsible to collect and analyse data from multiple sources to help their client or organisation make informed political, social, and economic decisions. They forecast trends and try to predict the fate of the market by customer/consumer opinions, investments, and marketing gravitations. Most of the data (which should ideally be autonomously qualitative) and analysis(like SWOT) is based on the business or project’s objective. They also evaluate program methodology. Market researchers are in high demand in both the private and public sectors and are hired by almost all areas of businesses and marketing agencies.
Choosing market research as a career is ideal for people who are interested in both statistics and have an understanding of the market. The career path leads to profiles like market research specialist, marketing manager, and director-level positions. With the growth in technology, marketing research is more than just statistics, companies want individuals proficient in search engines, web analytics as well as research tools to boost their performance. They collaborate with the marketing teams and report to marketing management of the project they are working on. They are often seen to be working as freelancers as well.
Paralegal
The public policy enables you to get into advocacy and law fields as well, starting as a paralegal. They assist attorneys and lawyers with clerical and research services like maintaining, drafting, and organising documents, calling and often interviewing witnesses, investigating cases underhand, and preparing for court trials. They also direct and coordinate activities in law firms they are hired at including delivering subpoenas. Typical employers of paralegals involve both public and private law firms including law offices, legal departments of companies, and real estate.
The career outlook of a paralegal is projected to grow faster as lawyers now tend to focus on the legal side of cases they are handling. Graduates interested in law are ideal paralegals. Bachelor's degree in public policy is one of the best fits for the role as the crux of public policy is based on laws and regulations and it commands the obedience of the citizens. Although policies are documents, they can lead to newer laws. And paralegals with public policy degrees often shine during those transitions as legislative aides.
Political Scientist
The public policy enables you to get into advocacy and law fields as well, starting as a paralegal. They assist attorneys and lawyers with clerical and research services like maintaining, drafting, and organising documents, calling and often interviewing witnesses, investigating cases underhand, and preparing for court trials. They also direct and coordinate activities in law firms they are hired at including delivering subpoenas. Typical employers of paralegals involve both public and private law firms including law offices, legal departments of companies, and real estate.
The career outlook of a paralegal is projected to grow faster as lawyers now tend to focus on the legal side of cases they are handling. Graduates interested in law are ideal paralegals. Bachelor's degree in public policy is one of the best fits for the role as the crux of public policy is based on laws and regulations and it commands the obedience of the citizens. Although policies are documents, they can lead to newer laws. And paralegals with public policy degrees often shine during those transitions as legislative aides.
Non-Profit Program Director
While they might start as an executive or a manager position after a master's in public policy degree, program directors of nonprofits play a key role in developing programs and teams to fulfil a short-term mission or a long-term vision of a non-profit organisation. They also interact with all teams and partners and evaluate the performance of the teams.
Non-profit program directors also develop budgets and may also be responsible to manage grant proposals. From managing things on their own as managers to overseeing the management process and providing strategic advice to various teams, choosing non-profit careers strengthens communities by providing various services that citizens need and the government isn’t able to provide.
Miscellaneous
Public policy is an issue-driven subject and virtually every career field has jobs related to making and imposition of policies. Apart from the listed careers in areas like policy analysis, nonprofits, legislative aiding, public service, etc, public policy also gives you wings to fly high in fields like economics, finances, public administration, public health, education, and transportation. You can train other students as a professor in public policy, which often requires Ph.D. in public policy to build a tenure. You can also choose city management and human resource career paths. Individuals interested in media may apply for policy-related media and communication opportunities during or after their graduation. You can also specialise as a policy analyst in topics like defence, labour, energy, environment, science, and economy to choose career paths in respective sections of the professional world. Public policy is often considered a child of the public administration field, so you might want to check public administration courses on Craydel.
