The International Institute of Business (IIB) is a university within whose walls one is accustomed to hearing the word “innovation.” For the fifth year now, a joint Ukrainian-Canadian project has been successfully developing here—the Canadian programs for training specialists in business management and HR management. On the Canadian side, IIB’s partner is Grant MacEwan College. Graduates of the program receive professional business education and a genuine Canadian diploma, the Management Studies Diploma.
And starting from the new year, the Canadian Business Management Program has become accessible to residents of all regions of Ukraine thanks to a new format of study. About how the training will be conducted and what this education gives to representatives of Ukrainian business is our conversation today with the director of Canadian Programs, Alla Ivanovna KARBOVSKAYA.
- The proposed new format of the Canadian Business Management Program opens up new opportunities for participants. Please tell us in more detail about how the educational process is planned to be conducted?
- Responding to the ever-growing interest in the program from representatives of Ukrainian regions, today we are offering a completely new format—a modular training structure. The two-year program consists of four semesters, each of which includes five module sessions. Participants gather once a month within the walls of IIB for a six-day session. I won’t hide that the class schedule is intensive—from 12:00 to 21:00. However, we already have experience with such a training format in other programs, and it shows good results. Then they return to their cities, where they prepare for the next module, working through training and methodological materials. By the way, the program provides a very interesting opportunity to intern for seven weeks at leading Canadian enterprises—in banks, investment companies, in the hospitality and municipal sectors. As a rule, 15-20% of our graduates use this unique opportunity to get closely acquainted with doing business in Canada.
- What lies at the basis of the program’s educational and methodological “foundation”?
- Over five years, together with Canadian colleagues, we have prepared a set of unique educational literature. However, in the new format of the program, we have tried to pay more attention to filling our electronic library. Upon enrollment, a participant receives their own page on the institute’s server. There, under a personal password, all the information for them is located: educational materials, assignments, data on their academic progress. There they can also communicate with the teacher online.
- And what would you say about the teaching “team” of the Canadian Program?
- The teaching staff of IIB is, in my opinion, the main component of success. As one of our graduates said, you can read specialized literature on your own, but sometimes it happens that you understand 90% of what you read, while the remaining 10% are not clear. And as a result, it is precisely these 10% that often turn out to be fundamentally important! In this situation, a timely consultation with a practicing specialist is simply irreplaceable. We have high-class professionals teaching here and, as students claim, extraordinary personalities.
All of them have undergone internships at leading institutes in Europe and North America and have many years of research and teaching experience. Author seminars and trainings by specialists such as Vladimir Zabolotny (international law), Natalia Lisun (organizational theory, strategic management), Mikhail Sorokin (financial management, corporate finance, business planning), and Natalia Pisarenko (marketing fundamentals) are known in many cities of Ukraine.
- It is no secret that in the regions people are skeptical of new trends: business is established, so to speak, the process is going. The question is, what and why do we need to study?
- It so happened that small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine were formed spontaneously, “by touch.” That is why managers often come to us for the Canadian Business Management Program: they lack systematized knowledge, the fundamentals of management accounting, and a deep understanding of the financial basis of business. And with entry into the world market, there is also a need for a comparative analysis of business principles in Ukraine and the West. This program is also interesting for mid-level managers who have felt the need for their own professional development, for climbing to a new step in their career. And finally, another part of our contingent is young specialists who feel the need to gain new knowledge, to “correct” the specialty received at the university.
- What are the selection criteria for participants in the program?
- Applicants must have a completed higher education; as an exception, these may be senior students. Two to three years of work experience is desirable—this guarantees that participants and teachers will communicate in the same “business language.” Applicants take a mini-GMAT—a basic mathematical-logical test and an English language test (GMAT or TOEFL). The final stage of selection for the program is an interview with a committee consisting of representatives of the college, the teaching staff, and the administration of IIB.
- Business education is, first of all, new methodologies, a qualitatively different level of training. What fundamentally new things await Ukrainian students participating in the Canadian Program?
- I would like to note that the Canadian program features a fundamentally new system of presenting material. The educational methods of MIB allow using all the advantages of interactive learning in the educational process. Situational analysis, case studies, role-playing games, live discussions, and presentations all activate the mechanism of creative perception of information. The program participants learn to independently solve practical business tasks, defend their own views, and work in a team on joint projects. But the main highlight of the Canadian Business Management program is its practical orientation: the acquired skills can be immediately tried out in real production activity.
- What are the prospects for graduates in the current labor market of Ukraine?
- The demand for specialists whose educational level meets modern international standards is growing both among domestic enterprises and foreign representative offices. It is no wonder that among the graduates and students of the Canadian program there are employees of such well-known companies as Philip Morris, Sony, Miratech, the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine, LLC "Leninskaya Kuznya", "Internews Ukraine", TACIS, the British Embassy in Ukraine, and many other well-known companies and institutions. We are glad that the new format of the Canadian Business Management program opens new prospects for business representatives from all regions of Ukraine. Modern business education technologies form a team of new-generation specialists – those who can take a fresh look at the development of the economy in our country.