Corporate university

Last updated

A corporate university is any educational entity that is a strategic tool [1] designed to assist its parent organization in achieving its mission by conducting activities that cultivate individual and organizational learning, knowledge, and wisdom. [2] Corporate universities (CU) are a growing trend in corporations. In 1993, corporate universities existed in only 400 companies. By 2001, this number had increased to 2,000, including Walt Disney, Boeing, and Motorola. [3]

Contents

The 'corporate university' also refers to public universities which have developed, or have been forced by states to develop, corporate style behaviour. [4]

In most cases, corporate universities are not universities in the strict sense of the word. [5] The traditional university is an educational institution which grants both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a variety of subjects, as well as conducting original scientific research. In contrast, a corporate university typically limits scope to providing job-specific, indeed company-specific, training for the managerial personnel of the parent corporation. The scope of the CU depends on the corporate strategy, consequently maintaining a strategic alignment between the CU and the parent organisation belong to the key success factors of a CU implementation. [1] Corporate universities are most commonly found in the United States, a nation which has no official legal definition of the term "university". Perhaps the best-known corporate university is the Hamburger University operated by McDonald's Corporation in Chicago.

Typical goals of a corporate university

Corporate universities are set up for a variety of reasons, but most organizations have the same basic needs. These are to: [3]

CUs offer valuable training and education to employees, but they also help organizations retain and promote key employees. Although a CU may sound attractive, there is a lot of work that goes into the planning and implementation of such a project.

Curriculum

J.P. Morgan and Co. is an example of a company with an organized curriculum. [6] They have three different types of courses: Business specific courses, organizational learning and communication classes, and management and executive training.

Most CUs offer a blended curriculum of online and in person classes. Some organizations offer courses during the workday while other offer them at varying times. Courses can be short workshops or longer, more traditional courses.

Unlike traditional universities, CUs demand a return on their investment. There must be concrete evidence that the classroom is delivering results. Many CUs provide hands-on and team learning as a more effective alternative to lecture-based courses, but all CUs agree that what is learned in the classroom should be directly applicable to the work environment.

Implementation

Although a CU may sound attractive, there is a lot of work that goes into the planning and implementation of such a project such as complex logistics, resource optimization and careful budgeting. [7] Indeed, corporate universities tend to be cost centers with dedicated training facilities servicing an often global workforce through a dedicated curriculum. [8] To manage this complexity, specific Enterprise resource planning systems have been developed for Corporate Universities, such as a Training management system. Other systems such as accounting systems and different types of learning technologies can be used together.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "A strategic alignment to leverage the role of corporate universities: A longitudinal case study of Chinese high-tech company ZTE". Gestion 2000. 37: 39–65. 2020. doi:10.3917/g2000.373.0039.
  2. Allen, Mark (2002). The Corporate University Handbook. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 9. ISBN   978-0-8144-0711-0.
  3. 1 2 Hearn, Denise R. (2002-05-10). "Education in the Workplace: An Examination of Corporate University Models" . Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  4. Simon Marginson, Mark Considine, 2000, The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia
  5. Kaplan, Andreas (2021). Higher Education at the crossroads of disruption, the University of the 21st century. Emerald Publishers. ISBN   9781800715042.
  6. Tanner, Lisa (2003-07-25). "Corporate university approach taking hold". Dallas Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  7. Pineau, Stephane (2016-12-07). "Training ROI- the Walmart success". LinkedIn.
  8. "Keeping it on the company campus". The Economist. 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2018-02-14.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outcome-based education</span> Educational system based on the desired goals

Outcome-based education or outcomes-based education (OBE) is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system around goals (outcomes). By the end of the educational experience, each student should have achieved the goal. There is no single specified style of teaching or assessment in OBE; instead, classes, opportunities, and assessments should all help students achieve the specified outcomes. The role of the faculty adapts into instructor, trainer, facilitator, and/or mentor based on the outcomes targeted.

A Master of Business Administration is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounting, applied statistics, human resources, business communication, business ethics, business law, strategic management, business strategy, finance, managerial economics, management, entrepreneurship, marketing, supply-chain management, and operations management in a manner most relevant to management analysis and strategy. It originated in the United States in the early 20th century when the country industrialized and companies sought scientific management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vocational education</span> Studies that prepares a person for a specific occupation

Vocational education is education that prepares people to a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with requisite skill. Vocational education is known by a variety of names, depending on the country concerned, including career and technical education, or acronyms such as TVET and TAFE.

Educational software is a term used for any computer software which is made for an educational purpose. It encompasses different ranges from language learning software to classroom management software to reference software. The purpose of all this software is to make some part of education more effective and efficient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curriculum</span> Educational plan

In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals. A curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curricula are split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit, the excluded, and the extracurricular.

Blended learning, also known as technology-mediated instruction, web-enhanced instruction, or mixed-mode instruction, is an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with physical place-based classroom methods.

Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives. Human resource management is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies and systems. HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee-benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and reward management, such as managing pay and employee-benefits systems. HR also concerns itself with organizational change and industrial relations, or the balancing of organizational practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.

Learning Management is the capacity to design pedagogic strategies that achieve learning outcomes for students. The learning management concept was developed by Richard Smith of Central Queensland University (Australia) and is derived from architectural design and is best rendered as design with intent. Learning management then means an emphasis on ‘the design and implementation of pedagogical strategies that achieve learning outcomes. That is, in the balance between and emphasis on curriculum development and pedagogy, the emphasis is definitely on pedagogical strategies. Underpinning the learning management premise is a new set of knowledge and skills, collectively referred to as a futures orientation and which attempts to prepare the mindsets and skillsets of teaching graduates for conditions of social change that pervade local and global societies in the 2000s. The practitioner of learning management is referred to as a learning manager. Adjunct to the theory and practice of learning management is the Learning Management Design Process (LMDP). The LMDP is a curriculum planning process comprising 8 'learning design based' questions. The process was developed by Professor David Lynch of Central Queensland University in 1998 and is used primarily as a tool to train teachers to teach [3]. These 'eight questions' when answered in sequence focus the teacher to what is important when planning to teach students. The LMDP organizes its 8 questions through three sequential phases: Outcomes, Strategy, and Evidence. Each phase represents the bodies of information that its associated questions seek to pursue. The LMDP represents a rethink of the various curriculum development models that have predominated the planning of teaching and curriculum in the developed world over past decades. The teacher develops their 'teaching plan' by engaging with each phase and its questions and recording ‘findings’ in plan form.

The Master of Education is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum and instruction, counseling, school psychology, and administration. It is often conferred for educators advancing in their field. Similar degrees include the Master of Arts in Education and the Master of Science in Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USAF Air War College</span> Senior professional military education school of the U.S. Air Force

The Air War College (AWC) is the senior Professional Military Education (PME) school of the U.S. Air Force. A part of the United States Air Force's Air University, AWC emphasizes the employment of air, space, and cyberspace in joint operations. Headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, its higher headquarters is the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. It is one of six war colleges within the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase II Education Program for commissioned officers.

A business–education partnership is an agreement of collaboration between schools and businesses, unions, governments or community organizations. These partnerships are established by agreement between two or more parties to establish goals, and to construct a plan of action for achievement of those goals.

Futurekids, Inc. is a privately held internationally franchised K–12 educational software company headquartered in El Segundo, California, which focuses on technological literacy and computer literacy.

Stride, Inc. is a for-profit education company that provides online and blended education programs. Stride, Inc. is an education management organization (EMO) that provides online education designed as an alternative to traditional "brick and mortar" education for public school students from kindergarten to 12th grade, as well as career learning programs. As of 2012, publicly traded Stride, Inc. was the largest EMO in terms of enrollment.

Online tutoring is the process of tutoring in an online, virtual, or networked, environment, in which teachers and learners participate from separate physical locations. Aside from space, literature also states that participants can be separated by time.

A strategic technology plan is a specific type of strategy plan that lets an organization know where they are now and where they want to be some time in the future with regard to the technology and infrastructure in their organization. It often consists of the following sections.

edX Online education provider

edX is an American massive open online course (MOOC) provider created by Harvard and MIT. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. edX runs on the free Open edX open-source software platform. 2U is the parent company, with edX operating as its global online learning platform and primary brand for products and services.

"Work-based learning (WBL) is an educational strategy that provides students with real-life work experiences where they can apply academic and technical skills and develop their employability." It is a series of educational courses which integrate the school or university curriculum with the workplace to create a different learning paradigm. "Work-based learning deliberately merges theory with practice and acknowledges the intersection of explicit and tacit forms of knowing."

A human resources management system (HRMS) or Human Resources Information System (HRIS) or Human Capital Management (HCM) is a form of Human Resources (HR) software that combines a number of systems and processes to ensure the easy management of human resources, business processes and data. Human resources software is used by businesses to combine a number of necessary HR functions, such as storing employee data, managing payroll, recruitment, benefits administration, time and attendance, employee performance management, and tracking competency and training records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Educational management</span> Administration of education systems

Educational management refers to the administration of the education system in which a group combines human and material resources to supervise, plan, strategise, and implement structures to execute an education system. Education is the equipping of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, habits, and attitudes with learning experiences. The education system is an ecosystem of professionals in educational institutions, such as government ministries, unions, statutory boards, agencies, and schools. The education system consists of political heads, principals, teaching staff, non-teaching staff, administrative personnel and other educational professionals working together to enrich and enhance. At all levels of the educational ecosystem, management is required; management involves the planning, organising, implementation, review, evaluation, and integration of an institution.

References