BCBusiness

E D U C A T I O N F O R P R O F E S S I O N A L S S p e c i a l F e a t u r e Digital-rst custom education For years, businesses and profes- sionalorganizations have struggled to provide engaging education fortheir entire teams, especially when those teams can be across Canada or around the world. EnterAthabasca University (AU), Canada's leading expert on bringing people and ideas together regardless of where they are. Launched in April of this year, AU's new Professional and Corporate Relations o€erings "build on our history of partnering with organizations and learnersaround the world," says Jessica Scott, Athabasca's Director of Professional and Corporate Relations.AUtakes a partnership approachto creating brand-newor modifying existing educationprograms. "This gives our partnersthe ability to align education to their needs and the needs of their teams," says Scott. "The vast majority of companies have had challenges scaling education across their organizations—ensuring that everyone with a desire to learn and advance has the opportunity. We help by creating a digital strateŒy that aligns to their objectives, is inclusive, and has the ability to ladder into certiŽcates, diplomas and even degrees.We can build pathwaysfrom micro-credentialing and badging throughto doctoral programs. While the options are almost limitless, we start simple. We work to understand our partners and their needs—really get at their 'why' and build from there. "We're currently working with organizations thathave skills gaps and are developing engaging and challenging programs custom tailored tothem. We want to make learning applicable to each organization. Whether someone is learning aboutmanagement orleader- ship, ordigital literacy, it should be engaging, applicable and enjoyable." Scott says: "Learning should never stop. The need to stay current has never been more critical.Canada's shifting labour markets and universities have to be responsive to this, and we're ready to lead the way." Innovative strategies for clients Innovation has always been a hallmark of SFU Beedie School of Business, pertaining to everything from its MBA programs to its graduate diplomas and certiŽcates. But arguably, nowhere is innovation more apparent than in SFU Beedie's Executive Education, which is currently being reinvigorated with a focus on custom tailored education for businesses and organizations. Karmen Blackwood, SFU Beedie's new Executive Director, Executive Education, explains: "Custom tailored education is a big part of our business model and it re—ects our purpose of serving organiza- tions in industries across a wide spec- trum. It also addresses our need to help clients be nimble to the ever-changing needs of business." Professionals have goals that require speciŽc education or training to achieve. "We work with them to identify the goals and whatever blocks prevent them from success and from there we design a program or solution that will help them achieve what they want," says Blackwood. The program is designed thanks to SFU Beedie's decades of partnering with industry and business leaders, as well as a faculty whose acumen covers every conceivable form of business transaction. "We have an incredible talent pool and by drawing on it we can create appropri- ate strategies for our clients—from short courses and workshops, to longer integrated programs, to dialogues and formal learning," says Blackwood. "We then determine with our clients the proper ways to deliver the program. It might be in a classroom setting, or online, or in a panel discussion format or a combination of di€erent learning strategies." Blackwood—who has considerable experience in the private and public sectors—joined SFU Beedie earlier this year precisely because the institution is making huge strides in redeŽning the educational experience for professionals. "We're developing programs for a host of industries and I couldn't be more excited about where Beedie is going with executive education," she says. "I like to think that we're not so much about delivering programs as we are about delivering real impact." SFU Beedie delivers evolving programs with an eye to the changing business landscape

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