Developing Professionally Refresh Review Upgrade UTD School of Management administrators couldn't help but notice the clamoring. Over the past few years, both local employees and employers have increasingly sought nontraditional ways to immediately fulfill work- related education needs. The growing demand has come not only from individuals seeking to learn skills and earn certificates that qualify them for career promotions. It has also come from corporations using professional development programs to hone in on specific skills needed by their business units or project teams. The School of Management (SOM) has responded, expanding the professional development niche of its Executive Education area. Like the rest of the School's Executive Education lineup, UTD's Professional Development Programs target adults likely to already have a degree and at least a few years' worth of job experience. But where Exec Ed students follow the traditional path, enrolling for an extended period in credit classes to earn advanced degrees, Professional Development learners take a shorter, non-degree route, dipping in and out of noncredit courses or certificate programs to buffer or advance their careers as quickly as possible. R. Jay Phillips, SOM's Professional Development director, says program offerings - from a few hours of classes presented at an office off campus to on-campus courses that take almost a year to complete - are "customized training for businesses within the Metroplex." Training provides solutions for people in the workplace - everyone from service representatives to highly educated professionals to business executives launching their own products or services. Joe Carlisle, for instance, needed specialized training for his already skilled human resources staff at Fujitsu Network Communications (FNC). Through The UTD School of Management, and in association with the American Society for Training and Development, three members of his team received certification in Human Performance Technology. This coursework, over almost a year, teaches participants methods and procedures to improve employee performance. Fujitsu: Creating a corporate university "Fujitsu was growing like crazy three years ago," Mr. Carlisle recalls. "There was enormous excitement and enormous growth." As FNC's Organizational Performance/Employee Development director, he was charged with creating a corporate university for employee training. His staff needed to be able to identify in Fujitsu's various business units the who, what, when, and where that such internal training might entail. "I was overjoyed with [the courses]," he says about classes his three staffers attended. "It was one of the best deals." UTD's campus is just minutes away from Fujitsu, the price was right, and it was a good fit organizationally. "We consider UTD a partner," Mr. Carlisle says, referring to the company's relationship with the School as an SOM Strategic Partner company. Strategic Partners are local firms allied with the SOM to provide the business education their employees need to engage in high-tech, worldwide competition. SOM: Five reasons to offer these programs Fujitsu's experience mirrors many of the reasons UTD offers these training opportunities. David Springate, SOM's associate dean for Executive Education, says Professional Development Programs fit well within the broader objective of Executive Education. He lists five points: 1. Demand exists for continuing education at all levels. "We're serving a growing market," he says. 2. These programs give the School an opportunity to work with local corporations, which is part of the SOM's mission of establishing relevance between its programs and the community around it. "We work hard to establish partnerships with local businesses," Dr. Springate notes. These programs are one way to do just that. 3. Short programs, on-site training, and the MIT Enterprise Forum all give the School valuable visibility. (Founded in 1986, the local division of the MIT forum is one of twenty-four chapters worldwide built around a core group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates. Like other chapters, it promotes the formation and development of technology-oriented companies. The Professional Development division co-sponsors and hosts forum meetings on UTD's campus.) 4. Having "real world" interaction keeps the School's educators in touch with the demands and issues emerging in the workplace. 5. Professional programs also generate income that supports The School of Management's unrestricted funds. "With the state reducing budgets, we have a need to earn money," Dr. Springate says. Mr. Phillips says recent staff reductions at Telecom Corridor companies have created cross-training demands, and inquiries come from a range of organizations. "Most of the people who are running these companies have engineering backgrounds," he says. "They've asked us to come in and help those people understand what [financial] numbers mean." Volvo Finance: Relating training to real-life situations Julia Dolberry, the HR specialist at Volvo Finance North America, says the School's time-management short course given to the Richardson-based company's customer call-service employees was helpful for several reasons. "We're a very lean organization," she says, so on-site training allowed service reps the opportunity to attend the three-hour class in shifts without interrupting work in the call center. "Jay [Phillips] and I did a lot of pre- training planning," Ms. Dolberry says. Employees kept a diary of their time use before Mr. Phillips arrived for training. The class ended up being lively and instructive, she says, with Mr. Phillips showing slides of his own, highly organized office and the office of a neighbor, which was in disarray "He said to do the hardest thing first, that way the rest of the day was a breeze," she recalls, remembering that he told call reps that only one file should be out at a time. Finish that work, put the file away, and go on to the next issue. "He did a good job relating it to our real-life situation." Alcatel: Getting up to speed quickly Immediate, comprehensive, and customized were features Rusty Shelton, vice president and general manager of the Network Services Division at Alcatel USA, wanted in training to get his professional staff up to speed in certain financial concepts after restructuring changed responsibilities in that division. "These are sharp people," Mr. Shelton says, noting that he wasn't dealing with a from-scratch proposition. "We needed to get the training going." It went fast. Originally, Mr. Shelton was going to send about eight people to an off-site program that would have lasted four weeks - one day per week. An internal training person at Alcatel - also an SOM Strategic Partner company - suggested checking with The UTD School of Management. The School was very willing to accommodate Alcatel's interests, Mr. Shelton says. Through Mr. Phillips, the School developed a two-evening customized program that was delivered a week later on Alcatel's campus to more than twenty staffers. Now, many months later, these lessons still resonate. "It benefited all of them," Mr. Shelton says. And yes, he would go back to UTD for future training needs. These training successes reflect favorably on the University in many ways. "I don't think the University's faculty has any reason not to enjoy these settings," Mr. Phillips says of professors who teach short courses. "Our faculty is very well focused on what's going on in the economy today." Faculty, in fact, often let Mr. Phillips know of their willingness to teach in the professional development seminars. Dr. Springate says these seminars also help keep faculty members in touch with the practical issues and challenges of the work-a-day business world. "There's lots of talking - why (a concept) would work, did work, or can't work," he says. SOM Accounting and Information Management faculty member Dr. Constantine Konstans, who has taught many professional development workshops, agrees with Dr. Springate. To see theories "work" for short-course participants is one of his most satisfying teaching experiences, Dr. Konstans says. "Also, doors are often opened to further research efforts." Dr. Konstans adds that benefits for business organizations are many. Those that encourage regular attendance in ongoing professional development courses tend to stay abreast in a changing world, as such courses "facilitate the spirit of change," he says. Their employees gain knowledge of the most up-to-date business "tools," and learn from the coursework itself, as well as other participants in the course, often developing creative solutions for the challenges facing their companies. And immediate benefits may extend to SOM's degree-seeking students. "For many of the events, some students are invited," Mr. Phillips says. "What a grand opportunity for them to hear people who are living what they are studying."