While open enrolment courses are showing the effects of reduced budgets, people who want business education are becoming better informed in how to choose it, says Kathy Harvey.
When times get hard, training departments get nervous. They know it is all too easy to trim their budgets without seriously affecting the bottom line. Employee satisfaction surveys may demonstrate that training and professional development are key factors influencing an executive’s decision to stay with one company, but when the chances of jumping ship to a better employer are slim, organisations have a habit of trimming benefits.
And yet it is not all doom and gloom for employees seeking to expand their career horizons. A recent survey by the UK-based Association of MBAs, looking at the salary and career prospects of members, showed that 75% of their employers are continuing to invest in the MBA as a qualification. Forms of sponsorship varied, from paid time off to study to a full payment of fees.
Other types of executive education are also still being supported – especially by larger companies. Business schools report that, while open programmes are feeling the effects of world events, customised programmes are booming. The Financial Times survey of executive education, just published, bears this out. Columbia Business School in New York reported that its customised business is growing 50% year on year, and Duke Corporate Education says revenues have trebled since three years ago.
Professor Michael Osbaldeston, director of Cranfield University’s School of Management, UK, believes that clients who may have been happy to sign up to whatever the business school offered in the past will demand more individual attention in future. “I foresee Cranfield academics working far more closely with our corporate partners, perhaps on their premises around the world, not just here in Cranfield.” Training departments are, he says, becoming more discerning and more determined to get value for money.
While business schools ponder the best way of giving the customers what they want, the Financial Times survey reveals that top names are doing well by responding to the current concerns about corporate governance. Harvard Business School, for instance, has introduced a series of open enrolment courses on how to manage audit and compensation committees.
The message seems to be that those who want business education are becoming better educated in how to choose it. Employees want help in managing their staff as well as their own area of expertise. The menu of company sponsored programmes may get shorter in future, but it is unlikely to disappear.
