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Course with employment: "Profession Methodologist from scratch to PRO»
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Alexander Molchanov
Founder of the company "E-prof: Professional Electronic Education" and curator of the Higher Education cluster at the Moscow International School of Economics (MMSO), previously managed the implementation of information technology and the organization of e-learning at several higher education institutions. He is an expert in the digitalization of education, as well as the development of universities, colleges, and continuing professional education. He specializes in the implementation of modern technologies in the educational process and the optimization of learning to achieve high results.
In a recent post, Alexander examined in detail the key issues associated with the organization of continuing professional education programs at universities. In this text, he analyzed current challenges and proposed possible solutions for improving the quality and accessibility of such programs. We are publishing his analysis with his permission.
For three years, I have been running the #DPO column, and unfortunately, I have not observed significant changes in the implementation of continuing professional education policies at universities. The processes and services operating at universities remain the same, and there is no sense of progress yet. Measures are needed to improve the situation and actively implement new approaches in the field of continuing professional education to make educational services more accessible and relevant for students and professionals. Universities are not seeing a significant increase in extra-budgetary funding for continuing professional education. At first glance, the situation appears surprising: new market players are quickly gaining market share, having already earned 100 million rubles, while more experienced institutions are also increasing their revenues. This is not a question of information businesses or the sale of diplomas online.
Universities continue to rejoice in the figures for continuing professional education, which barely reach 15-20 million rubles. However, there are several universities with significantly higher revenues, and in their case, serious questions arise regarding the quality of processes and services provided. Thus, it remains unclear what exactly is causing dissatisfaction in this situation.
Counting on a miracle instead of a marketing budget
Organizing the process begins at the very entrance to the university. Educational institutions often face a situation where they themselves do not apply the knowledge they acquire in practice. They train specialists in marketing, information technology, and management, but their own marketing budgets often raise questions. Most often, it is only partially linked to the main educational programs, and in some cases, is not linked to them at all. In the field of continuing professional education, the situation is even more complex - many universities do not even estimate how much money is required to market these programs. This creates serious obstacles to the effective promotion of educational services and student attraction.
Dear rectors, I strongly recommend that you contact your continuing professional education (CPE) program directors and relevant departments to inquire about the cost of attracting one student to a CPE program. You may encounter silence or verbosity that will not provide a clear answer, as each program has its own characteristics and conditions. However, it is important to understand that analyzing CPE expenses will help optimize the university's budget and improve the quality of educational services.
The average bill for a high-quality lead, which reflects the clear interest of a potential client, is approximately 1,500 rubles this year. Programs with lower costs are ineffective or based on unfulfilled expectations. Long-term results do not depend on luck or chance; Clear strategies and sound approaches are essential for success.
Months of fruitless approvals
The timeframes for all processes and the logic of their implementation at universities often become an obstacle to new initiatives. When coming to a university with a ready-made idea, willing to invest time, effort, and money in it, it is important to know with whom to begin discussions for the successful implementation of the program. It is necessary to contact those responsible for innovation or projects to find out what steps need to be taken to bring the idea to life. A clear understanding of the structure and necessary approvals will help speed up the process and lead to the desired result.
It is difficult to find a person on the university website who will make decisions on issues without relying on the opinion of their superiors. Usually, this is the rector, but discussing a continuing professional education (CPE) program that can bring in 3-5 million rubles is clearly not within the rector's purview. The importance of this program requires the involvement of more specialized experts who can effectively assess its potential and cost.
The level of approval is significantly increasing, which leads to the process being delayed for months. The university understands how to organize the work of its faculty: it is enough to issue an order, and in a week 200-300 professional development programs will be prepared and published on the website. But what to do with external speakers? How to conclude a contract with them? How should they prepare their materials? Where and with whom should the documents be signed?
At most universities, when a program is launched, the working team can increase to 15 people involved in this process. Surprisingly, under such conditions, the question arises: will they be able to effectively interact and coordinate their actions, especially given the different levels of management within the university? Most likely, the answer is no. This emphasizes the need to optimize processes and improve communication within the team for the successful completion of projects in educational institutions.
At one university, the process of preparing a promotional presentation dragged on for more than a month, as a result of which the initial desire to implement it was lost. At another university, 13 regulations and instructions were issued regarding the preparation of forms and documents for approval. Moreover, the approval procedure was described in separate instructions. Each of these documents is intended exclusively for university employees. Even with an understanding of the internal workings of educational institutions, I had difficulty understanding when and what documents needed to be submitted. This highlights the need to simplify approval processes and improve internal communication at universities to increase efficiency.
A third university couldn't understand how I planned to invest my funds in the program and then distribute the proceeds back according to the budget after receiving income. However, there is no mechanism for this, and standard solutions are not suitable here. Should I contact the rector again? Another university surprised me with the speed of preparing the necessary materials, but there were serious problems with sales. There was no sales funnel, no clear process diagram, no qualified salespeople. As a result, the program was never implemented. The list of difficulties goes on, but this much is already obvious.
Services are missing
Services must function without interruption. Contract preparation, signing, payment acceptance, and document request and issuance processes—all these processes should be as streamlined as possible. Regulations must be implemented quickly and efficiently. However, the question arises: why, two years after completing their training, have people still not received their documents? Who is responsible for this? All the necessary documents have been submitted, payment has been made, but there is no result. In this situation, there is no clear explanation and no one responsible for the delay.
The need to formalize non-standard contracts between budgetary organizations often leads to lengthy approval processes. Lawyers on both sides are currently negotiating terms, but it would be logical to create a service that allows specialists to directly contact each other for prompt discussion and approval of documents. Why are teachers, without legal knowledge, forced to waste time negotiating contracts? If a lawyer is unsatisfied with something in the proposed contract, they can simply request the contact information of a specialist on the other side and resolve the issue quickly. Instead of dragging out approval for two weeks, which could lead to the delayed launch of professional development programs, it's worth establishing effective communication between lawyers. This will significantly speed up the process and avoid unnecessary delays. The adjusted universities received additional funds under the Priority 2030 program. One of the key objectives of this program is the development of short-term educational programs in various regions and industries. Key performance indicators, as before, are determined by the amount of funds raised and the number of students.
The situation in the higher education market is changing, and at least 100 universities will begin actively investing in regional markets, attracting target audiences. However, many of them do not intend to change their internal processes, limiting themselves to issuing new orders. This will lead to an increase in the cost of a lead in the market. While public universities in the "Priority" program can afford to operate at a loss, smaller universities and commercial educational centers will not be able to do so. Universities striving for qualitative change and entering new niches and target audiences must fundamentally revise all aspects of the continuing professional education (CPE) process. This will allow not only to adapt to new conditions, but also to remain competitive in the market.
Read also:
- Do universities and EdTech compete in the continuing education market?
- "There is no employer in the education market if he does not pay"
- What is wrong with employee retraining in Russia?
- How the problem of IT personnel shortage is solved?
