E Forester Project Title “To establish if Market demand exists for short professional courses that are full-cost recovery, to be delivered in the Lisburn City Area and initially targeted at organizations that may require Accountancy up-skilling

Aim / scope of Management Project The aim of this project is to assess if Market demand exists for short professional courses that are full-cost recovery, to be delivered in the Lisburn City Area and initially targeted at organizations that may require Accountancy up-skilling. The scope of the project is to establish current level of demand and identify specifically the skills gap that may exist that the college could service which will ensure that curriculum provision in the college is focused on economic and workforce needs

Objective of Management Project Specific objectives are:-Primary Market research objectives To establish from a sample of financial employees within the ATI course in SERC what % believe demand exist for short course? To identify what short program is there greatest Demand for at present? To identify what would be the best time for the delivery of short courses? To establish preferred site for delivery of short course? To ascertain the price companies are prepared to pay for a day’s training. To assess the quality of training provided presently by competitors? To find if SERC could provide any other Short professional courses to local companies?

Objective of Management Project Secondary Market research objectives To identify the number of Business In N Ireland within the Finance Area in 2013 To identify the % of Business in N Ireland within the Finance Area that are in the Lisburn City Area in 2013. To identify the location of our FE/HE competitors and map it to the location of financial companies across N Ireland.   Qualitative Market Research Objective 1 To assess employer and employee perception on the demand for short financial courses and to identify what type of product is required, how it might be delivered and what organisation/employees would perceive as a market price.

Why look at short course in finance? As program manager for the Accounting Technician Ireland (ATI) for SERC it has been observed that demand for this course has increased in the last 2 to 3 years on the Lisburn site and September 2013 saw the establishment of a day-release class on this site who paid full-cost fees. An opportunity may exist to provide other short financial course that could be full cost recovery providing additional income for SERC. In addition the project links to the strategic document Further Education Mean Business…specifically raise skills and qualification levels in areas that meet the needs of the local Economy; 2 ensure that curriculum provision in colleges is focused on economic and workforce needs

Research Methodology Primary information was gathered from a questionnaire targeted at internal accountancy students in year 1 of the ATI L4 Certificate who were identified as a convenient sample based on the restraints of the research which were, limitation of time, money and resources. Secondary information was gathered from our internal GI consultant, Kathryn McNair who sourced information using GIS from the land registrar’s office and the National Statistics Office. This was linked to the research objectives of the project to ensure appropriate findings could be identified and then mapped to N Ireland and the Lisburn city Area. A focus group was held with a small sample of students in the ATI L4 Certificate to Identify to what extent they believed demand existed for short professional courses that are full-cost recovery. This was to access the groups attitude to such a course being delivered by SERC and how best to meet employer/employee’s needs.  An unstructured interview also took place with a local employer in the construction/service area to identify what kind of short financial courses SERC could locally provide.

Secondary Market research Findings -GIS 1 There are 1670 finance and Insurance business in 2013 VAT/PAYE registered in N Ireland.

There are currently 95 Business in the Lisburn city Area or 6% of the Total In N Ireland

3 A significant majority of the registered business in Finance & Insurance are located within the SERC area or a radius of 50 miles

Findings questionnaire…sample Q1 Do you believe there is a demand for short financial courses within your company that SERC could provide?

Q1 Do you believe there is a demand for short financial courses within your company that SERC could provide? Q2 Rank the following course in order of importance?

Q7 How much would you expect to pays in terms of days for candidates attending? Q6 How long would you expect a short course to last in terms of a working day?

Focus group employees Focus group employers A market did exist for short courses Types of course that would be suitable, Computer course spreadsheets for finance, Payroll, Sage, Advanced word. Price of course varied from £100 -£300 per day, dependant on provider. I or 2 day course of 6 hours would be good. Grants available from Invest NI for some training Promotion of course best by face to face contact and follow up e-mail and contact. Favourable to college if tailored Other course interested in, customer service, team-building, change focus, recruitment and selection A market does exist if delivery and content appropriate, Types of course, spreadsheets (pivot tables), Microsoft Outlook (filing and organisation... managers.) basis sage, manual bookkeeping (involves etc... Hands on work). £100 to £150 per candidate... Currently grant CITB if recognised provider but not a killer for the right course. Preference delivery morning over 2 weeks. Need quick skills up-date and hand on. Staff need to ready to put skills into action on return to work to see immediate benefit. Contact flyer with tick box or e-mail return... Reply interested 

Options Demand for short Fiinanciial course Option one - : Do nothing; the risk to SERC are we are not meeting the needs of FE means business, SERC strategic objectives or generating additional income for SOBHT Advantages.none Decision .incorrect option Option two- Run and promote a full suite of short Financial course targeted at local employers. to commence early in 2014 Advantages,potential to make a quick revenue stream Disadvantage.produvt may not meet clients needs and damage the brand Decision. incorrect option Option Three Run a pilot course for one course identified has having high demand target at employers with Flyers and a follow up call to commence in the spring of 2014.- Advantage opportunity to get best practice Disadvantage. initial revenue stream limited. Best option Identify project area - gather primary and secondary information

Why option 3 Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. Peter Drucker American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 - 2005)

Identify cost benefits from completing the project   No Revenue Cost OHS Total costs Net profit/loss Contribution to School Breakeven numbers Group 1 1 day course 10 at £100 per day £1000 Lecturing at 6 hours £50 per hour £300 £100 £400 Profit £600 4 2 day course £2000 £200 £800 £1200 Group 2 10 at £150 per day £1500 £1100 3 2 day course £3000 £ 2200

What are the implications and impact of the project on SERC The successful implementation of the project will have positive impact as it is linked closely to the strategic document Further Education Mean Business: , specifically raise skills and qualification levels in areas that meet the needs of the local Economy; ensure that curriculum provision in colleges is focused on economic and workforce needs

What are the implications and impact of the project on SERC Key external stakeholders at DEL will have quantifiable figures on the number of candidates enrolling onto such cost recovery courses. Moving forward it will be possible to track over a 12-24 month period how many move onto accredited qualifications. Extrapolating this further and using the Model for costing by the Business service section we can clearly see how the development of such course could produce revenue for the SOBFM helping it to meet it income target for 2013 of £178000. Link this with Specialist Provision for Industry using College Expertise - SPICE

Do we move ahead? What would we lose? Opportunity to create an additional revenue stream would be lost. Not meeting our strategic objectives. Opportunity to develop new product that are customer led. Partnership Reactive v Proactive Leader or follower.

“Research projects rarely go to plan……problems may still emerge that will require careful consideration in weighting up the value of the project.” Brassington, Pettitt. (2005) p 166  Next step The case for the project will need to fully developed and sold to all stakeholders to ensure that all the resources in terms of time, money and staff are made available to ensure it is implemented with on-going monitoring and feedback to key stakeholder to verify key milestones are met and the project is proving value for money and represents best practice.

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