Expert Severo-Zapad
(
TO COME INTO
FOCUS, Anna Postnikova
Demand for the
focus programs adjusted to needs of a certain company is growing on the market
of business education
Education for
corporate clients is one of the most dynamically developing and promising
segments of the Russian market of business education. Increase of requirements
to competence of employees against the background of deficit of qualified human
resources in the regions of rapid economic growth provides for steady demand for
business education programs composed according to orders of certain companies.
Players of the market of business education pointed out that whereas only large
Western companies did corporate education initially, in the last five years
large and even small but rapidly growing Russian companies understood the need
for establishment of corporate universities.
To grow up on your
own
According to Sergei
Shatilo, aide to the director for corporate programs of the Higher School of
Economics of the SPb GUEF, interesting corporate programs is especially big in
Northwestern region, first of all, in St. Petersburg and in Leningrad Region.
This is not surprising: rapid economic growth of the aforementioned regions,
accelerated development of large companies in most diverse sectors of economy
and big investment projects of the last few years have generated a serious
deficit of qualified human resources on the labor market.
Olga
Loseva, director of the department of programs for managers of the Stockholm
School of Economics in Russia, says, "In the period of growth and changes need
of a company for skilled managers submerged into specific of the industry and
prepared for making of decisions grows dramatically. In such situation it is
simpler and more efficient to grow them up inside of the company than to search
for them on the foreign market."
Structural changes
of the demand are characteristic too. Shatilo points out that whereas formerly
corporate programs have been ordered mostly for top managers, now there is a
trend of broadening of the categories of students. Middle-rank managers become
the main consumers of this market. Moreover, there appears demand for programs
for linear managers. Shatilo explains, "Such area as production management
becomes popular and programs are worked out for foremen. They are taught what is
business plan, how they are to manager the subordinates, what is the strategy of
a company in general and how work of their unit fits the common
work."
Creation of a team
of managers speaking the same language is a priority task of corporate
education. This will allow leveling of disputes, regulation of the problem of
conflict of goals and establishment of efficient interaction among all
structural divisions of the organization. Involvement of the middle-rank
managers and production managers into the circle of students provides a
possibility for translation of values of corporate culture to all levels of the
company and thus to achieve a bigger return from the
education.
To any
taste
The main providers
of corporate programs are large business schools that offer a broad range of
services for corporate clients.
Programs of the
so-called closed market are differentiated according to content and duration but
their main advantage is the fact that they are very flexible and are developed
individually for needs of each certain company that acts in the role of the
customer. Thus, long-term programs (general management, MBA) are intended for
general re-training or improvement of qualification. Their priority task is
giving of basic comprehensive knowledge in the field of management and teaching
of students what is business and how it is to be run. These programs are
connected to an industry to a smaller degree.
Middle-term and
short-term programs are the focus ones. They are oriented at the maximum broad
potential audience and are intended for improvement of narrow professional
competence of the students. Middle-term programs are actually separate modules
of long-term programs. Companies turn to their assistance in cases when there is
a need for reinforcement of weak points, to deepen the knowledge in a certain
area, for instance, in the area of accounting, marketing or human resources
management methods. Short-term programs are represented in the form of training
or seminars that last for one to three days. According to Tatiana Kovaleva,
director of the department of corporate programs of the St. Petersburg
International Institute of Management (IMISP), seminars are often ordered by
graduates of MBA programs when a certain "piece" of the program that they have
learned fits the processes going on in the company well.
To understand each
other
From the standpoint
of players of the market of business education, during creation of a focus
program for needs of a certain client the main thing is to find a common
language with the customer. The providers are prepared to solve the problem of
cognitive dissonance offering consulting services. According to them, option of
partnership relations is the most efficient. Tatiana Kovaleva, "Helping
implementation of projects we involuntarily have to understand them and, relying
on certain experience, we accumulate material taking into account the industry
toolkit and develop demonstration cases."
A provider can be
curator of a program starting from preparatory stage and up to control over
quality of implementation of working projects after its accomplishment. Shatilo
says, "After diagnostic audit it is revealed which department should be taught
what or which department should be established from the zero level. We
frequently encountered a very paradoxical situation when financial department
questioned the need for existence of the marketing department. Only in the
course of a research management of the company drew a conclusion that this
department was needed after all."
However, consulting
services are sufficiently expensive, that is why thorough diagnosis and deep
research of the problem of need of a company for education is often not included
into the budget. Most often, diagnosis and follow-up formation of an application
for education of human resources is done in the economic mode by employees of a
company themselves.
Vladimir Pletnev,
manager for work with corporate clients of the Open Business School (OBS),
comments, "As a rule, programs are formed on the basis of an application of a
company composed by the human resources department. This is the first sore point
of the market of corporate programs because quality and result of education will
depend directly on how accurately the application is formed from the standpoint
of necessary skills and knowledge, which does not happen very often
yet."
Continuing this
thought, Kovaleva says that not always an education manager thinks in business
terms and very often he is weakly involved into activity of a company. A
decision on the need for education made by the management and forwarded
downwards is implemented directly through the human resources department. That
is why it is important that the human resources department be competent in the
issues related to corporate education and have not formal but skillful and
creative approach to the problem.
Active
participation of the head of a company in preparation of a focus program is an
option for search for a common language less expensive for the customer and more
efficient. It is the head who can formulate what his employees should know and
be able to do "in the output" or after accomplishment of education in the
clearest way. He acts as the customer, he determines the topic, he singles out
the issues being priorities for his company and points at a desirable aspect of
their consideration. After consultations with the head of the company it is
simpler for organizer of education to understand how to organize seminars,
choose optimal training and suitable topics for
discussions.
To teach and not to
lose
When a company
invests in development of its employee it definitely undertakes certain risks.
Despite that after graduation from a closed program a person receives only a
certificate that is not equal to a diploma, the market value of a specialist
grows. The employee who has accomplished education may quit the company and the
money will turn out to be spent in vain. It is impossible for a company to
protect itself from such risks. It is possible only to take effort to reduce
them working on increase of loyalty of the employee.
Anastasia
Korshunova, deputy director for international development of
Pletnev comments,
"It is also necessary to understand that an employee returns to his working
place after education with new knowledge and new look at things whereas the
remaining "organism" tries to work in the old way. The task of a manager is to
give the right for a mistake to the employee and to ensure conditions for him to
be able to apply the received skills in practice after
return."
***
From the standpoint
of players of the market of business education, during creation of a focus