The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has launched its pilot program at five business schools chosen by the society to help the MBA graduates to improve their strategic communication and maintain the management's reputation while learning how to handle the crises.

Five business schools including Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Quinnipiac University's School of Business, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, University of Texas at El Paso's College of Business Administration and University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will offer courses in public relations for the MBA graduates for this academic year.

The courses will offer lessons to the students on corporate communication, social responsibility and how to establish a brand. "CEOs have made egregious mistakes in transparency and governance," Associated Press quoted Gerard Corbett, chairman and CEO of the public relations group, as saying.

"This initiative is to get executives at the beginning of their careers and understand the nature and purpose of good reputation management," he said.

The courses have been developed in association with Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. As a first step the courses will be offered as electives as part of the MBA program.

Public Relations play a significant role for companies as the reputation of a company is important for its success. A study by Kelton Research conducted last December noted that 93 percent of business leaders believe that public relations is important for their companies as like other forms of communication, reported the U.S. News.

According to the survey, 59 percent of the business leaders said they had hired fresh MBA graduates in the last three years. Only 41 percent of the grads recruited have been found to be strong in building the company's reputation, while only 40 percent in protecting the company's credibility.

Recent graduates are seen as under-prepared by many companies as they lack skills in addressing the communication strategy.

On the positive aspect, the job outlook for public relations jobs is much better. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of public relation jobs in 2010 was 320,000, while the projected change in the job from 2010 to 2020 is 68,300, overt 20 percent increase, faster than the average job growth.

The course will help them learn the importance of communication methodologies for future job prospects.