Practice v Theory
The International Business Council (IBC) publishes a quarterly journal – “Investment Now”. After the initial issue, each one has taken a theme for the majority of its articles: Banking, Mining, Communications, Energy, Tourism, Agrobusiness and so on. It may come as a surprise that in 2006, Education was chosen as a theme. After all, Education is not usually considered as a business.
In fact, that is probably a fairly simplistic view. In many ways Education is a business – even if it isn’t … it is certainly an issue in which business has a very legitimate interest.
Why do I say that I think that “In many Education is a business”? Please note that I say “in many ways …” There are many aspects to education – some of them are akin to business, whereas others are more social, philosophical, aesthetic or altruistic.
Although education can be seen as a process … which is continuous and lifelong. On the whole, however, many people associate the word with a stage in life – which is Education is delivered in schools, colleges, universities and similar institutions. When an institution is involved – then we introduce bureaucracy, finance and economics.
Running an educational institution is very much akin to running a business. For example: as a teacher I used to work in a school with over a 1000 pupils, over 100 staff and an annual budget of over one million pounds. It would not have been classified as a small business. To be able to justify it’s existence it needed pupils. It needed to attract pupils, however, for a far more mercenary reason … the number of pupils it was able to attract controlled the amount of money it had available. Once a year we went through an exercise which seemed as if we setting out our wares in a market, trying to sell our school, our services. Parents and children would travel to see several schools in their neighbourhood, inspecting the facilities – even, (especially), the toilets. Each pupil attracted to the school could bring with him a thousand pounds of funding. If you couldn’t “sell your school” then you ran the risk of not being able to afford the facilities, or funding the staff, necessary to provide a quality education. You even ran the risk of bankruptcy – although it was usually couched in the terms of being a “failing school”.
Once funding had been secured, then it was just as important to obtain the best “value for money” as possible for every penny spent. Alternative sources of income were sought, alternative sources of supply were explored, Business Plans were prepared, alternative courses of action were proposed, Performance Indicators imposed, different theories of management were employed. Running an educational institution was just like running a business and the Head Teacher was the General Director of the enterprise.
There were key questions, of course, about the nature of the product of the enterprise, and who constituted the customers – the consumers of the product.
It is possible to see the student who graduates from a course or institution is seen as the final product of education. But what sort of graduate? What do we, or they, expect to receive from following a particular course of study?, what is the purpose of someone attending a course?
Unfortunately, “education” is sometimes confused with “training” – preparation to fulfil a particular role. Although it is one of the purposes of education, there are others. Let me illustrate what I mean through a story: I once attended a meeting along with the Deputy Minister of Education, representatives of various universities, businessmen (employers), graduates and students to discuss educational policy. One recently qualified graduate complained bitterly that after six years of study in Higher Education – and graduating with the equivalent of an Honours Degree - he could not find a job – and had wasted those six years of his youth. I remember thinking: “How sad … he thinks that the sole purpose of his time in University was to prepare him for employment … whatever happened to self-fulfilment, to to the idea that the acquisition of knowledge is good for its own sake …”
The obvious consumers of education are the students themselves … and although they may be the primary consumers, they are not only ones.
Their parents are also consumers – especially if they are the ones that are “paying the bills” … remember the cliché that: “he who pays the piper …”. Then there is the government – especially if the institution is state run, or the student is the recipient of a stipend. Business is also one of the consumers of the final product of the educational process.
Every quarter “Investment Now” publishes the results of a survey of investors about their opinions of the investment climate in Kyrgyzstan. This survey has become an influential instrument, and is frequently referred to by government officials, businessmen and donor organizations. The survey regularly identifies “the availability of qualified personnel” as one of the top ten issues considered when planning investment in the Kyrgyz Republic.
The businessman, as a potential employer, wants to be convinced that the applicant being considered for a vacancy has the knowledge, skills and experience to perform the tasks and fulfil the role for which they are being considered. Where are they going to get this? A more mature applicant may well have gained the necessary requisites from their previous employment, but what is the situation when the candidate is a newly qualified graduate?
I was asked to write an article for the Education issue of the journal. My brief was to write (in approximately 350 words) specifically about how industry and educational institutions can work together, because the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators and the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University have signed a co-operation agreement. As you will have gathered from the above, the 350 word limit was a bit of a handicap – indeed, I exceeded the limit … but here is what I wrote:
The IBC’s quarterly investors’ survey regularly identifies “the availability of qualified personnel” as one of the top ten issues considered when planning investment in the Kyrgyz Republic.
The term “qualified personnel” raises an interesting philosophical point about the nature of education. Although obtaining an education can be considered as a worthy goal in itself, for those not seeking to follow a purely academic career there is always a question of relevance: “Why are we learning this?”, “What is the value of this?”, “What has this got to do with the price of fish?” … and so forth. Obtaining a qualification can also be considered simply as “training”, preparation for fulfilling a particular role or task. However, concentrating on the practical elements of a course can leave the student without the theoretical background which provides for flexibility and adaptability which is necessary in a rapidly changing world.
There are almost twenty educational institutions offering courses in tourism – preparing people for work in the industry. A general feature of these courses is the recognition that, in addition to a sound basis of theoretical knowledge, it is importance for each student to obtain practical experience to put the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom into a “real-world” context. As a result, a period of “work experience” is an essential element of most of these courses.
It is not known exactly how many work places exist in the four and a half thousand registered enterprises that apparently work in tourism in the Kyrgyz Republic, but as tourism is a service industry the quality of the personnel is a vital factor in the success of any enterprise. So, as well as offering opportunities for “work placement” during the tourist season, the members of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators (KATO – which brings together some 40 companies working in the sphere of tourism and a number of educational institutions which offer courses preparing people for work in the industry), also undertake several other measures for the improvement of the quality of education and training for those working in the industry.
In particular, a cooperation agreement was signed between KATO and the Turkish Kyrgyz “Manas” University in 2004 with the aim of establishing greater links between the worlds of academia and work, such as: supporting the publication of training materials, organization of specialist conferences and courses, and providing lecturers for classes. It is hoped that the initiative will bring a greater understanding understanding of the theoretical basis which guides and governs everyday decisions and customary practice, whilst giving examples of the practical implications of lessons learned in the classroom.
Finally, I want to finish with a story about an incident when, as a teacher, I was on a training course. As part of the I was given the task of interviewing a couple of colleagues about the their attitude towards training courses. I chose two individuals who were about as different from each other as could possibly be. They were both Mathematicians, very good mathematicians and very good teachers. They were both charismatic and enthused their pupils for the subject – which is not an easy task – especially when the subject is mathematics. Let’s call them Peter and Paul. Peter was what could be termed an Applied Mathematician. He was very practically minded … for him, a good training course was one which would provide him with materials he could use in the first lesson the following day. When asked for an example of good training course he had attended, his response was that there wasn’t one … they were all a waste of time – and he only went on courses to “tick the box”. I asked about courses we had attended together … to which he replied that although they were interesting – they weren’t “useful”. Paul, on the other hand was what might be termed as a ”Pure Mathematician” … he had a very philosophical approach. When asked for examples of “bad” courses he had attended he said there weren’t any. When I remonstrated that: “Paul, I’ve been on some of the same courses as you … what about the one on …”, he replied that although the sessions themselves were not very good, the course gave the opportunity to meet with colleagues and exchange views and experiences – and that in itself was extremely valuable!
Bishkek