Schulich Developments
Program Spotlight:
The Masters Certificate in Public Management
Globalization and innovative new ways of doing business are not only transforming private sector companies – they’re also changing the way governments design and deliver public services.
SEEC’s The Masters Certificate in Public Management, sponsored by Deloitte and Touche LLP, gives public sector professionals at the federal, provincial and municipal levels the leadership tools and techniques they need to bring about transformational change.
The 15-day Masters Certificate in Public Management program, carried out over a period of five months, takes participants through ten key learning modules, with a strong emphasis on action-learning group projects.
The Program begins with an overview of the key trends and issues in public management that are impacting the policy-making process today and covers a broad range of topics and issues, including enterprise risk management, policy execution and implementation, and managing partnerships and strategic alliances.
The Program also provides international best practices on everything from top-level leadership and stewardship techniques to strategic management tools that can be applied immediately within the workplace.
A number of major public sector organizations have sent managers to The Masters Certificate in Public Management program, including Elections Ontario, Health Canada, Parks Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
To learn more about The Masters Certificate in Public Management, please click here.
SEEC Program:
Marketing Management
More than 2,000 new and seasoned marketing professionals have taken the rigorous, five-day program and implemented many of the cutting-edge practices they learned in the classroom.
With a track record like that it’s no wonder that Marketing Management is touted as Canada’s #1 marketing course.
The SEEC course is designed to give participants proven, real-world skills in all of the key areas of marketing – everything from marketing strategy and planning techniques and market research to launching new products and services and developing appropriate pricing strategies.
Participants learn the main concepts behinds brands and branding as well as the best ways to build an enduring brand. Participants also analyze market segmentation from both demographic and psychographic viewpoints, and learn how to differentiate their product or service in a crowded marketplace. Special attention is focused on the Internet, and how it impacts traditional marketing channels while opening up a host of new opportunities for reaching potential consumers.
One of the highlights of the program is a computer marketing simulation. Participants are divided into small teams and tasked with the challenge of developing a marketing strategy for a new product.
The program features a number of the faculty members from Schulich’s highly-rated marketing department, including: Ajay Sirsi, author of Marketing Led, Sales Driven and a marketing development consultant for high-profile clients such as Bayer, Manulife Financial and Pioneer Electronics; Brenda Gainer, a former Schulich Educator of the Year award winner and an expert in service marketing, retailing and consumer behaviour; and Alexandra Campbell, who has consulted for clients such as Imperial Oil, Bell Canada and Allergan Optical.
To learn more about SEEC’s Marketing Management,please click here.
Special Feature:
Learning in Tough Times: Conference Board of Canada Report Highlights Development Pressures Faced By Canadian Firms
A new study of corporate training and executive development shows that Canadian firms are cutting back on their employee development expenditures at a time when skills shortages are growing. The result: under-investment today may threaten a company’s competitiveness down the road.
The Conference Board of Canada report, Learning in Tough Times, revealed – for the first time in a decade – that a majority of Canadian firms expect to decrease their executive development and employee training budgets. Organizations spent an average of $787 per employee – about 1.5% of payroll – on training, learning and development.
But that figure compares poorly to the average expenditure in the United States, Canada’s largest competitor. Even more disturbing is the revelation that investment in executive development had decreased by more than 40 percent in real terms over the past decade and a half. When looked at in terms of the amount of training and development each employee received, the picture was likewise depressing: in 2008, Canadian employees received an average of 20 hours of development, down 30 percent from only four years ago.
Other highlights and key findings:
- Targeting Development Dollars on Older Workers and New Canadians
Although Canadian firms indicate they are altering their employee development strategies to meet changes in the labour force, the report shows that older workers and new Canadians were far less likely to receive training at a time when the Canadian workforce is becoming older and more diverse. Most development spending is targeted at employees at the supervisory level and above, and employees with less experience receive more training on average.
The report showed that small and medium-sized firm – as well as firms in the professional services and not-for-profit sectors – tend to spend more on employee development.
- Companies Know They Should Be Doing More
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they were “not satisfied” that their organizations’ training, learning and development activities met its needs.
- More Companies Consider Themselves “Learning Organizations”
The proportion of companies that consider themselves to be “learning organizations” has grown from 56% in 2006 to 71% in 2008.
- Informal Training Growing
Development and training is occurring more frequently through informal channels outside traditional settings such as classrooms and retreats. Some of the increasingly popular informal methods include mentoring, peer coaching and social networking.
- High Potential Employees Get Lion’s Share of Training Dollars
A significant percentage of Canadian organizations concentrated most of their employee development dollars on “high-potential” employees rather than spread limited resources more evenly on employees throughout the company. Among development activities, leadership development was rated number one by most organizations.
