Robert Gordon University (RGU) is aiming to create a new army of leaders within the energy industry by offering a new Masters (MSc) in Leadership and Management to support the transition of ex-military personnel back into the civilian world. The course presents an industry-recognized qualification and allows officers to demonstrate their extensive leadership and management experience in a corporate setting, ensuring energy companies march to success.
The vast leadership and management skills of ex-military officers will provide companies with a valuable new resource of leaders to tackle some of the tough challenges they face. During service, military officers develop a wide range of skills including adaptability, team work and mission-focus gained through roles such as logistics, communications, mechanics and engineering. For many industries there is an opportunity to recruit 'accelerated competency and capability' through convertible expertise from the military, adding value to their corporate culture, processes and projects.
The UK is finally acknowledging the huge talent pool to be found in ex-military service men and women, with strong linkages emerging, particularly in the energy and finance sectors for example through military mentoring schemes.
Such associations have existed for considerably longer in the US, where companies such as Siemens cite 10% of new hires as being ex-military. According to a recent report by a Korn/Ferry International written in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit ,which gave an in-depth analysis of data on American CEO's from S&P 500 companies, Military officers are almost three times as likely to serve as CEOs as other Americans.
The course covers key topics, including Strategic Leadership, People Management, Project Leadership, Financial and Management Accounting and Organizational Development. Students are required to choose a specific route of study from Energy, Financial Management, or Business Start-up to focus on before completing a consultancy project; conducted in the style and formality of a commercial consultancy project within an organization, dealing with a real-time leadership issue exposing students to their chosen sector.
The significance in defining military skills through a masters course is verified by ex-army infantry officer and RGU Subsea Engineering MSc student, Richard Stark, who stated, "The military and oil and gas industry share a similar skill set, however these skills need to be tweaked to fit the industry priorities. RGU was instrumental in identifying my inherent skill set and pivotal in combining them with an education and guidance that will ultimately lead to my success in the energy sector."
The course will be delivered by respected academics and associates with relevant military knowledge and industry experience. These include Professor Alex Russell, Chair of the Oil Industry Finance Association which is associated to Oil and Gas UK and Matthew Anderson, an associate lecturer at RGU, who after a career in the Royal Scots left the army to establish himself as a successful entrepreneur. Strong links with industry and the consultancy project ensure that content is relevant to industry requirements and graduates are effectively prepared for the workplace.
RGU offers flexible modes of study with online distance learning via RGU's award-winning virtual campus making the master course widely accessible throughout the country and allowing individuals to learn at their own pace, at any time of the day or week during the semester, or face-to-face at Aberdeen Business School (ABS).
The university's prowess in delivering such courses has been recognized not only by The Times University Guide 2011 which professed, "A degree from Robert Gordon University is as near to a guarantee of a job as you can get", but was also named "top Modern University in the UK" in The Guardian University Guide 2011 and recognized by The Aspen Institutes Centre for Business Education which ranked ABS in the global top 50 for its MBA programs in its highly acclaimed 'Beyond Grey Pinstripes' survey.
The Leadership and Management MSc will welcome its first cohort of students in September 2012. For more information on the course and entry requirements please contact Linda Strangward on 01224 263111 or email l.strangward@rgu.ac.uk.
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