Practice-relevant teaching for the managers of tomorrow

Practice-relevant teaching, namely on-site in companies: The Höhere Fachschule für Leadership & Management Zentralschweiz (HFLM) promises to offer an alternative to conventional learning formats by addressing concrete business and economic issues during the lessons and developing practical solutions.

Practice-relevant teaching is expected by more and more companies

The reason for this concept is obvious: students should learn in an action and practice-oriented way from the very beginning, as more and more companies and the market expect. Three factors play an important role here: the lecturers, who are all recognized experts in their fields, the partner companies where the lessons take place, and the real-life practical cases that the students work on in the company on site. "I am convinced that we are awakening the needs of the market with this novel concept. Of course, theoretical principles form the basis of our teaching, but much more important to us is the real-life implementation in practice, which we apply in each module," explains Sascha Güntert, head of school at HFLM. Another important plus point of this new technical school: the English language is part of every subject taught. Here, with the partner company academia, a "professional for teaching the English language could be brought on board," as Güntert continues.

Cooperation with partner companies

As the academia example shows, HFLM wants to work actively with partner companies. According to information on the website, interested companies can contact us at any time. But what does the "requirement profile" of such a partner company look like? "Simply a company standing in the market, which does not have its own human, financial or material resources for open questions of operational processes (QM, strategy, HR, PR, marketing, organizational development, leadership development, employee development, supply chain management, finance/accounting, etc.)", explains Sascha Güntert. And how can the partnership benefit? "As HFLM, we support the companies in their own corporate and value-added development," says Güntert. And this is precisely where the "on-the-job teaching" form of instruction comes into its own, as the educational institute's website puts it. "Theory flows directly into real projects, with all participants multiplying their knowledge directly." A company thereby benefits from the targeted transfer of knowledge into practice and an additional asset in its value creation. Specifically: "The big difference is that our partner companies, like our lecturers, provide actual cases to be solved, in which our students can develop their knowledge 1:1," Sascha Güntert explains further.

Three courses and more

HFLM offers three courses: Business Administration HF, Marketing HF and Digital Marketing. In-house training courses, for example in the area of leadership, expand the offering. Sascha Güntert is convinced of the new concept: "We see great potential here, because SMEs also have the need to develop their employees. With our customized courses, we guarantee that the knowledge gained is really relevant for the employees and the companies."

The first HF course starts already at the end of April, the courses for the diploma "Digital Marketing Manager" already in February, there are also intensive courses during the school vacations. In addition to "on-the-job teaching," the training courses follow the framework curricula as specified by SERI (e.g. for Business Administration HF) or Swiss Marketing (Marketing Manager HF). Great importance is also attached to online teaching: Virtual sequences are integrated into every subject.

Source and further information: www.hflm.ch