The nation’s biggest corporations no longer rely on universities to make sure their hires have an education that fits the job. These days, companies are drifting towards educating their workers by themselves, through a number of programs that range from in-house, short-term courses, and long-term programs, to opening corporate departments at universities.
This in-house education helps to kill several birds with one stone, experts believe. On the one hand, they arm workers with an appropriate skill set, and on the other – help strengthen the corporate culture and inter-departmental connections, education experts say.
Moreover, corporate trainings offer educators a unique peak at workers from every department, helping the company to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, says Nataliya Kopylenko, head of EY (Ernst & Young) Business Academy.
Ukraine’s biggest energy holding DTEK is the informal national leader in corporate education. The holding is a part of System Capital Management that belongs to Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Established in 2010, its DTEK Academy offers a number of educational courses for specialists in fields that range from engineers who service energy generating plants to top managers. For example, workers can develop their skills in special computer classes at Vostokenergo energy generator, during which they can simulate the start or halt of generating facilities, as well as emergency situations.
For its managers, DTEK developed two big courses: Energy of Knowledge and Leader’s Energy for middle and top managers, respectively. The company describes its Energy of Knowledge course as a “corporate MBA program,” developed in conjunction with the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School (KMBS).
Taught by KMBS professors, DTEK executives and foreign experts, the program is made up of six modules, such as business strategies and financial analysis. According to the KMBS press service, the program has 300 graduates and about 200 new participants, who began their studies this summer.
Leader’s Energy program for top managers takes 12 months to complete and has 25-30 participants per year. It just enrolled the second group on Aug. 29 who will study in Ukraine and a business school in France.
Corporate MBA is free for employees since DTEK spent Hr 20 million on program development and support, according to Forbes Ukraine.
Mriya Agro Holding, one of Ukraine’s largest growers, in contrast, decided not to re-train experienced employees, but to teach university graduates and students. To prepare employees for different departments, Mriya opened courses for agrarians, mechanics and accountants that last four to nine months, depending on the job.
The company’s training center in Ternopil in western Ukraine has everything that students may need: well-equipped classrooms, machinery and free accommodation. Participants also receive scholarships comparable to average salaries in the region, Mriya’s spokeswoman Iryna Solyar says. The average monthly salary in Ternopil is about Hr 2,500, according to the State Statistics Service.
During studies, students have the official status of company employees. Upon graduation, the best students can get a full-time job at Mriya. In 2012, all the graduates landed jobs in various departments, Solyar says. The university, which only started operating in 2011, has had 108 graduates and students to date.
This spring, Mriya also launched an Agro Leadership MBA program for its top management in partnership with the Kyiv School of Economics and Lviv Business School.
“The efficiency of business management primarily depends on the team that makes decisions. That’s why we invest in personal and professional development of our managers, as well as accumulation of their leadership competencies,” Andriy Guta, member of Mriya’s supervisory board, was quoted by his company’s website as saying.
Big consultants like EY and Deloitte also run their own academies. But a great number of their students actually come from other companies that commission various courses for their employees.
“On average, experts of EY Business Academy hold more than 150 workshops and seminars annually,” Kopylenko says.
One of the most popular programs EY is asked to teach is Mini MBA, but leadership and personal development trainings are also in demand. Each course costs upwards of $3,000 and is taught in groups of 10 or more, Kopylenko said.
Apart from its own MBA programs and short- and middle-term trainings, KMBS also holds a number of corporate sessions. Annually about 50-60 companies ask for trainings, but only 15-20 of them are taught in the corporate format, deputy head of the KMBS Executive Development Programs Tymur Demchuk says. Most of them in the end decide to send their employees for open trainings or even for an MBA at KMBS.
“Another reason why we do not teach all applicants in corporate programs is that KMBS only works with top management, in some cases with middle management and a talent pool. This is because we believe that only by working with such people in companies we can get quick and effective changes,” Demchuk says.
Prices for KMBS programs depend on the type and duration of the program – from Hr 25,000 for one day to Hr 1 million for a one-year corporate MBA. KMBS dean Oleksandr Savruk believes that such MBA programs not only provide knowledge to a top manager, but also form their personality.
“In our experience (with organizing a corporate MBA for DTEK, Parallel gas stations and PrivatBank), such programs, according to reviews by top managers, is a very effective tool for training a leadership team on a new management level in the company,” Savruk says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Kapliuk can be reached at [email protected].
