18 - 24 May 2000

MIM set up company to administer management courses

by Ivan Brincat

The Malta Institute of Management is setting up a company to administer and manage courses and training programmes in management, MIM President Godfrey Swain told The Malta Business Weekly yesterday.

The company, MIM Training and Development Services Limited is being set up as part of a restructuring programme which is aimed at expanding and improving the services on offer.

The MIM President said restructuring was needed in the Maltese economy. "It is about being able to be more efficient while offering a better service. As a professional body, we have to lead by example. Thus, we are taking the bull by the horns and will separate the business activity from membership," he said.

Currently MIM organises a degree programme in management leading to a Masters in Business Administration and it also organises a diploma course in management, as well as a number of different certificate courses. Moreover, the MIM has also recently introduced a Doctorate in Business Administration. This last course has attracted eight persons in the second intake, a number which is deemed to be very satisfactory by Mr Swain. "As the country tries to attract more foreign companies, they will need such expertise," he said.

Mr Swain said the strategic alliance with Maastricht School of Business has reaped a lot of benefits and in fact MIM now wants to move a step further. "Our main aim is to become a regional training centre for managers. We want to be able to organise full time MBA and DBA courses to students in the whole Mediterranean basin. We know what Malta can offer. The Maltese market is limited and as happens in other companies, we need foreign income."

The courses that are currently on offer are aimed at managers currently in employment. "It is not a correspondence course and is intensive with one module each month. We get foreign lecturers."

Mr Swain said the success rate of the course is good, a reason attributed to the qualifications that are needed to be eligible to take the course.

Asked if the MIM was aiming to become a constituted body, Mr Swain said that members has so far expressed the opinion that the MIM should remain outside politics and not become a constituted body. "We have been discussing this issue for quiet some time by but have always kept back," he said.

Meanwhile, the MIM will organise an international conference in conjunction with the European Council of Management CECIOS. The title of this conference is "Management Challenges in an Enlarged Europe".