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Equipping employees for a Brave New World – University of Reading

Unique, flexible courses that combine the strengths of both an MSc and an MBA have been developed by the University of Reading. Every company understands the importance of good training - the need to continue to develop its employees, increase their knowledge and skill set, and ensure that they are equipped with the competences for their jobs. However, it has often been difficult to find courses which provide employees (and students) with the technical skills they require, as well as equipping them to deal with the business and management issues they will inevitably come across in their day to day jobs. In October this year, The University of Reading will become one of the few Universities in the UK to offer MSc courses that deliver just that. This course is also delivered at Beijing Institute of Technology to meet the demand identified in the Chinese market. These new courses have been developed in response to this increasing demand from academia and industry, for professionals who possess a well-balanced portfolio of knowledge and skills in science and management (as typified by the Professional Science Masters courses that have recently been launched in the US to rave reviews). The programme is ideal for those wishing to pursue or already in careers which require knowledge and expertise in application domains as well as IT and Informatics. These revolutionary new Informatics courses provide the perfect balance of hands-on technical training and business theory to equip students for the world of science and management. It takes the best aspects of MSc and MBA courses, and combines them to create a unique course which equips students for careers such as project management, business consultancy, systems analysis or systems design. The MSc programmes offered by the University are: • MSc Applied Informatics (a taught course) • MSc Informatics by Research (a research and project based course) Both courses include a dissertation project which is relevant to a practical problem and students are encouraged to conduct their research within an industrial environment. In this way, students already in employment can apply their studies to their existing company. Commercial subjects covered by the courses include: - IT project management and planning - E-business strategy and planning - Organisational design and management of information - Business communications and negotiations - Entrepreneurship and innovation To complete the course, a student will typically take four to six modules, each delivered in a week's block. The dissertation project can be conducted at work and the student is encouraged to carry out a project related to his practical work so knowledge and skills learned can be directly applied. Students attending the course also choose specialist modules which will provide them with the skills for technical and management roles in the following four specialisations: Business Informatics, Biodiversity Informatics, Construction Informatics and Computation Informatics. These modules pull together expertise from a range of schools within the university, including The Business School, Construction Management, Plant Sciences and the Informatics Research Centre. Applicants could come from a wide variety of backgrounds, for example: science, mathematics, management, engineering, construction, or computing and both courses are available as full time (one year) or part time (three years) options, allowing existing employees to continue to work while they study. The courses have two entry streams over the year, so students can begin the course in January or October and potential students who do not have a degree, but who possess relevant industry experience may also apply to the course. If funding is a problem, studentships for both courses are available to full-time Home and Overseas students. If you are interested in finding out more about the course and how it can benefit your business and your employees, please check on http://www.irc.rdg.ac.uk/Postgrad.htm, or contact the course adviser Dr Lily Sun – lily.sun@reading.ac.uk End For media enquiries only please contact Craig Hillsley, the University's press officer on (tel) 0118 378 7388 or (email) c.hillsley@rdg.ac.uk