Learning to get ahead
Andrea Philips works more than eight hours a day, goes home in the evening, grabs something to eat and studies for two hours. To some, this may seem like madness, but Philips sees it as a way to further her career.
An assistant food and beverage manager at Chessington World of Adventures, Surrey, she is part of a small group of people who are taking a three-year distance-learning MBA in hospitality. The course, introduced by Oxford Brookes University, is tailored to the students' working environment. "The course is aimed at practising managers, to add theory and a framework to what they are doing," says Dr Angela Roper, MBA (hospitality) programme director.
The first year, the certificate in hospitality management, consists of eight modules: personal effectiveness, organisational management, the manager's environment, human resource management, marketing, financial management, information management and integrative business scenario.
The first part of the certificate, personal effectiveness, aims to make people examine themselves and their working methods before they manage others.
A workbook is provided for each module, and the students must complete a written piece of work every six to eight weeks. They are then graded as being either competent or not competent in that particular area.
The modules and course work are designed to be flexible. People taking the MBA can drop out at any stage and return up to five years later. The university allows three years to complete each part.
Students can be exempt from any part of the course in which they already have a qualification. Philips, for example, was exempted from finance and organisational management because she holds an HND in hotel and catering management.
She decided to take the course because she wanted to learn more about the business. "You compare the working methods at your place of work against that at other places. I have looked at staffing levels and turnover and compared it with catering at other parks," she says.
Grahame Corbett, bars manager at the Copthorne hotel, Gatwick, also decided to take the course to learn more about the industry and to help his career. "I enjoy this industry and wanted to further my career," he says. "The business and administration side of it has helped me."
Philips and Corbett are sponsored by their companies and, according to Oxford Brookes University, more than half the people taking the course receive sponsorship from their employers. "If the employers are not supportive, it adds to the stress," says Roper.
But employers do not just provide financing - they are also encouraged to act as mentors. Philips and Corbett use their personnel managers as mentors. "My personnel manager puts me in touch with people who specialise in the different subjects," says Corbett.
Corbett and Philips are looking forward to the second year of the MBA, the diploma in management studies. Once the course is over, Philips has agreed to work at Chessington for at least another year, while Corbett is already thinking about running his own bar.
