Eriska MBA Advice

Over a year ago now we were introduced to Queen Margaret University, partly through one of our guests who had worked with them and partly through being vociferous about the growning gap between education and the industry. We have since the first introduction got on well and I have been amazed by how similar our views on bridging this education gap and trying to bring about change have been and we have therefore started trying to work together to deliver real change.

In reality this involves actual change and mostly an attempt to try and understand what each side wants and relating that to what each side can deliver. As part of this process we offered to use Eriska as a case study for the MBA program and whilst we gave them unlimited access to facts and figures in return we have been able to hear their views. This all culminated this week when I was invited to help with the appraisal process of the course and spent a day at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh hearing students present their papers on the situation and then visiting HTMI in Switzerland where the course is run as a distance learning package.

I has been a truly fascinating week seeing how each student has approached the subject dn whilst some had great difficulty in understanding the concept nd all we are trying to achieve the vast majority not only gathered it but came up with a vast raft of ideas and proposals. The good news is that many of the ideas and observations we have already highlighted and introduced over the last 8 weeks following internal investigations at Eriska by the team but there remain several useful suggestions for us to try and take forward. Regrettably we had such a  busy schedule that we had little time to gain feedback from the students but those we did have the chance to communicate with seemed to have enjoyed the fact that the case study was a real model and it allowed them to gain valuable experience which they willl be able to put into practice when they graduate. It will now take me a few days to collate the data I received and assimilate it to te team at Eriska but hopefully it is the first step in this valuable two way process of moving education and industry closer together and if successful it can be expanded.