A Business School Specializes
By ALINA DIZIK
As for-profit executive-training firms ramp up their efforts,many business schools are looking to compete by offering more in-depth open-enrollment programs,which bring senior managers back to the classroom.Some schools are turning to specialized courses that target industries where education is most in demand.Next fall at Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Management in Nashville,Tenn., executives can earn certificates in subjects like health care and banking,by taking a sequence of six to 12 two-day courses.Certificates will cost $6,000 to $12,000.We spoke with Tami Fassinger,associate dean for executive education at the business school,about the program and the advantages business schools have over private competitors.Edited excerpts follow:
Q:How are you attracting candidates to take courses in such a tough economy?
A:Previously many of our courses were three days in length;now we've shortened them to two days in length.We found that spending two days out of the office made a big difference to a director or executive.So we now have a Monday and Tuesday format and we can have them back in the office on Wednesday morning. This reduced the courses price to $1,800 from $2,700.
Q: How do the new certificate programs help differentiate university-based programs from private consultancy offerings?
A: Academic institutions blend academic credentials with industry experience. Everyone from our dean to our faculty director was also a CEO; (they don't) just talk with academic jargon. A for-profit education institution would often say that their competitive advantage is that the people teaching you have real practical experience in corporate America; we do that, too, but we are also well-known researchers.
Q: What else isn't offered by for-profit firms?
A: We are way ahead of them in terms of the people network. We have about 1,000 people come through our nondegree education program each year, so we get to know all those people. Our staff is very stable, so if you call us 10 years from now, you still know the people who are working -- it's much more about personal touch. We're not enormous and we are not a puppy mill in the world of exec ed.
Q: Why the focus on health care and banking for the certificate programs?
A: Nashville is a huge health-care community. We did a lot of customized education related to health care and as this evolved, our own M.B.A. alumni would call us and say they wanted to come back and retool. It's also the fastest-growing industry in the U.S., so people will have to learn new job skills. With banking we've long been known as having the best financial faculty and we're known as a finance school. We've been training people for the Banking Administration Institute for more than a decade but we wanted it to lead to something.
Q: How did you develop these programs?
A: What we have found is as this economy has shifted, people wanted certificates to be even more specific. Our health-care (participants) will be in class with our Master of Management in Health Care degree students so they will get the benefit of those students' health-care management experiences. Courses run once a month, Friday night and all-day Saturday. For banking we have the Vanderbilt Banking Institute, a partnership with a nonprofit in Chicago. We're going to have six offerings and each one is only two days long.
Q: Who do you expect will participate in the new certificates?
A: We are going out and letting our own alumni base know, as well as the community at large. We also have longstanding relationships with companies like Cisco (Systems) and Microsoft, which have health-care industry groups, so those are the kinds of organizations that we expect to populate this program, as well as a lot of individuals.
Q: Are you planning to offer additional certificate programs?
A: Our next one, in corporate social responsibility, will launch sometime in the next year.
