SIM’s plans to overcome challenges |10 September 2007

The CEO was speaking at SIM’s Ma Joie campus, as 43 former students graduated in a ceremony that was attended by President James Michel, Vice-President Joseph Belmont and a number of cabinet ministers as well as top civil servants and key business leaders and sponsors.

Making its training programmes more relevant and demonstrating that they will deliver the competencies employers require of their staff, are some of the hurdles the institution plans to tackle.

Mrs Larue said that SIM has already undertaken some work-related researches and also carried out job analysis workshops with management cadres, business students, secretarial staff and district administrators.

She said that based on these undertakings, SIM reviewed some modules in the office management course, and is developing an executive development programme for public service managers and administration cadres.
 
“In addition, the training that we offer must change the competencies of the trainees. Therefore, each short course and each module that we deliver must make a difference to the skills set of the learner. It needs to change their working lives,” she said, adding that the institution needs to develop not only good people but also good organizations who can benefit from the trained people.

“How do we demonstrate to employers that the training we provide is worth every rupee that they spend?  Clients want more service of higher quality but cheaper!  Shrinking budgets and Aids are now shaping investment in training.  Therefore, we need to reinvigorate our value chain in order to make it cheaper for clients to access our services,” Mrs Larue said.
 
The CEO said that ongoing training does not address mindset, and SIM can have more programmes, open longer hours and during the weekends and offer web-enabled learning with learners in the driving seat, otherwise “the uptake will be disappointing.”
She named making learners more responsible for their own training as another challenge.
 
“How do we convince participants that 15 Saturday afternoons is nothing in a lifetime?  Or take up training after working hours?” she asked, talking of a need to address mindset of managers some of whom feel “too learned to learn.”

She said that there are positive signs such as increasingly more students being self-financing, a trend she said needs to be encouraged.

“We need to convince local banks to make available career development loans to students to allow them to pursue their studies. Financing training is going to be one of the major factors restricting growth in human capital in future,” she said, highlighting the need for SIM to retain its reputation.

Mrs Larue said that SIM’s buildings are 23 years old and the college’s activities have largely outgrown them.

“We are privileged in that we have the capacity to expand, and at this point, I would like to appeal to the government to give serious consideration to supporting capital investment in the SIM in the immediate future,” she said, adding that SIM will explore public/private initiatives and also call upon its private sector partners to contribute to the endeavour.