Open for Business
| Date | 01 September 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057413 |
| Published date | 01 September 1985 |
| Pages | 12-13 |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Open for
Business
With the economy struggling to stay out of recession, time
as never before means money and few firms can willingly
release their managers for weeks at a time for regular
train-
ing.
However strong the need for such investment, the dic-
tates of work schedules are likely to block the introduction
of training programmes that send staff off site.
Throughout industry some major initiatives by the Open
University (OU) are helping to overcome the problem.
Employers have long recognised that work-related courses
from the OU's degree programme are worth sponsoring.
Now, the focus is turning to Scientific and Technological
Updating (SATUP) and other professional training oppor-
tunities as provided, for example, through the Open Univer-
sity's Open Business School.
Since the launch of the school in Autumn 1983, about 4,500
people have applied, turning it almost overnight into one
of the biggest business schools in Europe, (and helping to
establish the Open University as Britain's biggest training
agency).
"The Effective Manager" is the core course offered to work-
ing managers by the Open Business School; it is recognis-
ed by the Institute of Personnel Management for exemption
from Stage 1 of their own qualification.
Like many open business school courses, "The Effective
Manager" incorporates a weekend residential school, with
the opportunity to meet fellow manager-students. This is
in line with the school's policy of combining theoretical work
with practical advice and exercises.
Those quick to grasp the opportunity presented by the
school have included new appointees needing new skills
urgently, women re-entering managerial work after bring-
ing up families, redundant managers seeking new job op-
portunities, technologists new to, or about to enter, manage-
ment, and, of course, managers who have received little or
no formal training or who need to update knowledge ac-
quired some years ago.
All these students have recognised the chance to acquire
new skills, expertly, without having to take time off work.
There is even the chance to aim for a Diploma in Manage-
ment which, eventually, it is hoped, will lead to a Masters
degree on completion of studies additional to the 840 study
hours required for the Diploma.
Open Business School courses are based on the OU's
well-
tried techniques of distance learning and depend on cor-
respondence material, tutor contact and audio visual
material,
such as radio, television, audio cassettes and
videos. Most importantly, the courses demand the motiva-
tion and enthusiasm of their students—not difficult qualities
to
find,
given a lack of opportunity for many people other-
wise to update their training.
Open Business School students have a good—and
increasing—range of courses to meet their own specific re-
quirements. As well as "The Effective Manager" there is
"Accounting and Finance for Managers", "International-
marketing",
"Personnel Selection and Interviewing", "Start-
up Your Own Business" and two new courses, "Marketing
in Action" and "Managing People". "Managing Information"
and "Personal Skills" are among others in the pipeline.
"Startup Your Own Business" is a nice example of the
school injecting new expertise into an operation just when
demands on the manager are greatest and training—if at
all—must be flexible.
The course was launched in 1984 with help from a
£240,000 loan from Barclays Bank. Students are allocated
to an adviser for up to nine months and on completion of
the course, make a presentation of their business plan to
a panel of experts. Given the current high mortality rate for
new small businesses, the aim is to help new entrepreneurs
make a better start in turning their ideas into successful
commercial ventures.
One "Startup" student, Anita Linsell, of West London, is a
case in point. Having worked her way up from secretary to
company director in the steel industry, she nevertheless
sign-
ed on with "Startup" (through a bursary awarded by BBC
"Breakfast Time") so that she could benefit from expert ad-
vice and guidance in developing her new enterprise based
on the export of agricultural machinery.
At the large company level, a number of major companies
have taken block bookings for their staff at the school; Pretty
Polly and Mullard are two examples. Audi Volkswagen, on
the OU's doorstep at Milton Keynes, is another firm to use
Open Business School expertise, in this case using course
materials and Open Business School videos or television
programmes as part of in-house training and development.
Other companies, notably GEC, are using Open University
expertise differently. The university is devising company-
specific training programmes frequently based on material
from existing OU courses—a form of "contract training" that
seems set to prove a popular answer to fast-changing,
modern training needs.
Given the current high mortality
rate for new small businesses, the
aim is to help new entrepreneurs
In GEC's case, the area of training has been in microelec-
tronics, with a tailored "course", complete with tutorials,
taken on site in various company locations, to help staff
bridge the gap between the old and the new technologies.
Taking the "in-house" concept a step further, the OU is in-
troducing a series of "sandwich" workshops for training
managers and trainers in medium to large companies to help
them put together their own self-instructional training
material and to enable them to introduce cost-effective
12 IMDS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER • 1985
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