- In the last two years, the UManresa Postgraduate School of Business has promoted joint work with companies to design tailor-made programmes that respond to their training needs
- Companies that have opted for tailor-made training particularly value the use of simulation and personalized attention
- UManresa will continue to promote this training line, which has so far reached companies from several sectors and has offered programmes aimed at various professional profiles
Business studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Manresa have long been committed to strengthening ties with local companies. As part of this strategy, in the last two academic years, the team at the Postgraduate School of Business has focused on attending to the specific needs of companies by designing tailor-made training courses that reflect their professionals’ learning requirements. The result of this line of work has been very well received by companies, to the extent that the Postgraduate School is already working on the design of new innovative training products that are useful in the business world.
Companies from different sectors
In the 2022-2023 academic year, UManresa trained 168 people who participated in a dozen tailor-made training courses. Some of the companies that have opted for the Postgraduate School of Business are Uve Solutions, Grup Gamma and Avinent. The list of professionals trained in recent months includes team members from companies in the retail, industrial, technological and construction sectors, and this academic year 2023-2024 a company will be added from the food sector.
Companies that have selected the university to train their professionals are from various sectors, from retail to construction
Other characteristic elements of these training courses are that they are aimed at a range of professional profiles, from different professional categories and departments. The training programmes are adapted to all these characteristics. Their design considers, for example, if they are for staff from a logistics or customer service department, a commercial team or management teams.
Joint design of training courses
The key to the success of these programmes is adaptation to each company’s specific needs. In fact, before any training is started, the Postgraduate School teams and the company define the group that the training will be for and what training and learning challenges they want to focus on. Then the training programme is designed, and its duration and methodology determined. The adaptation of programmes to needs means that some are of short duration - training courses of only two or three sessions - while others may last for months.
Some examples of training courses that have been tailored for companies are management development programmes, team management and leadership development training, and training to learn and improve customer service skills, to improve communication and influence on others, and self-awareness and personal effectiveness sessions.
The key to the success of these tailor-made training programmes is the joint work between university and companies to define the learning objectives in order to design training that responds to them
According to Carla Martí, manager of UManresa’s Continuing Education Projects, working in this way on the design of programmes “requires a level of involvement in design and execution that is much greater and affects both the university team that designs it and the company”.
Value-added training
This way of working together to create tailor-made training courses is one of the aspects that is most highly valued by companies that have opted for the Postgraduate School of Business. Two more aspects that companies mentioned when they discussed the added value of this option are the use of simulation methodology and work to deepen personal self-knowledge. Both aspects are introduced in a cross-cutting way in all the training courses given by UManresa used to train company professionals.
Simulation methodology is used to develop and practice skills and competencies in a practical, immersive way, in environments that are very close to reality, but safe and controlled. Simulation puts people in difficult or stressful situations such as those that can be experienced on a day-to-day basis and allows a subsequent assessment to learn from them. Skills are always better acquired if they are the result of experience. In the case of tailor-made training, specific situations from professionals’ day-to-day tasks can be recreated to practice these skills.
In terms of self-awareness, UManresa is committed to work on emotional intelligence so that all professionals know each other, know how to identify other people and learn to work on communication skills that are essential in team management.
Satisfied companies
One of the companies that has trusted in UManresa’s in-company programmes is Grup Gamma, a company in the construction and renovation sector that specializes in bathrooms. Together with the Postgraduate School, this company opted for team management training aimed at logistics managers. The objective set by the company at UManresa was to make professionals aware of the importance of managing people and work teams, and to provide them with applicable tools to develop as leaders. Based on this request, the company and UManresa designed a training course that included aspects of self-awareness, improvement of communication and assertiveness, and conflict management work from the perspective of emotional intelligence.
For this company, its geographical proximity to the University and its previous relationship as a member of the Prèmium programme were two important factors in the decision to do this training at the Postgraduate School. However, what was crucial in the decision was “the interest and effort that the University made to find out the company needs and to design a training programme that responded to them,” explained the Head of Human Resources of the Gamma Group, Dolors Peralba. Peralba stated that “it has been outstanding how UManresa has integrated our training needs”. The company’s head of logistics, Gabriel Jiménez, one of the programme’s participants, agreed with Peralba and highlighted the excellent approach of the training. According to Jiménez, the training “has helped us get to know each other and learn how to identify the energy of the rest of the team to improve the interaction between us. Now we are better prepared to communicate with each other, to resolve conflicts and to manage the stress derived from day to day activities, which is not always easy”. With regard to the methodology used, the Gamma Group particularly appreciated the use of simulation to put learning into practice.
Gamma Group is one of the companies that, as a result of this first experience, has decided to continue working with UManresa. The programme they will launch soon will serve to work on team cohesion among the company’s workforce.
The companies that have selected the university for their training value how it adapts to their needs and the use of simulation methodology
Avinent is another of the companies that has opted for tailor-made training at the Postgraduate School of Business. In this case, a training programme was taught that was adapted to the needs of the ten people who manage an Avinent commercial team. The training course’s aim was to develop company managers’ awareness of integral business management in their area, in terms of leadership and team management.
During the training course, which took place in various sessions over the course of four months, the importance of managing people and teams was discussed; as well as assertive communication and recognition of the people who are part of the teams, and the use of emotional intelligence to resolve conflicts. The training course used simulation methodology to consolidate and develop the skills that professionals must have in the exercise of their function.
The programme, entitled Human Skills for Leadership and Team Management, helped these professionals to learn to look at teams and the people who comprise them from a different perspective. According to the company’s International Sales Director, Xavier Boadas, the programme "was very interesting. We worked on tasks that we are used to doing, but that we can now look at from a different perspective. We learned techniques such as how to recognise the communication attitudes that we have with our teams”. Boadas highlighted that communication was worked on during the training. He says that it was very useful in learning how to “explain ourselves, to listen and understand the needs of our teams”.
Strategic consulting
Another line of work to strengthen the relationship between university and company is strategic consulting work. This is a service that provides expert guidance to help organizations develop and execute strategic plans that drive their long-term business success.
During the strategic consulting process, work is based on the company’s needs, for example, cost analysis, optimization of company processes or the definition of the organizational structure. UManresa also offers advice on implementation of the strategy, and on the establishment and monitoring of indicators to evaluate the results.
Studies rooted in the territory
A connection between university and business is part of the strategy of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The dean of the Faculty, Marc Bernadich, believes that collaborating closely can contribute to “the business fabric benefiting from university knowledge and vice versa. We want to help companies promote and grow their professional talent. For this reason, part of our effort will be devoted to jointly identifying new training needs to respond to them using academic knowledge”.
This is not the only line of work within the framework of this strategic commitment. The Prèmium programme for business studies, which has 42 participating companies, is an example. So is the collaboration of professionals and company managers in the training of future graduates in Business Administration and Management. They may provide case studies or interesting interpretations for students’ development as future professionals in the business sector.