Tuesday 29 November 2005

Forget Union Jack - Joan Takes AIM to London

Former Queensland Deputy Premier and Treasurer Joan Sheldon has just returned from a business development venture to England where, in her role as Executive in Residence at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM), she hosted a business lunch, with the help of Australian High Commissioner Richard Alston and Queensland Agent-General John Dawson, for Australian and British business people.

“The main thrust of my visit was to present the tremendous capacity of AIM’s e-learning arm, TheCyberInstitute – to show business leaders abroad the range of learning packages, our affiliations with regulatory and accreditation bodies and the value and substance behind the training TheCyberInstitute offers,” Mrs Sheldon said.

TheCyberInstitute is AIM’s online learning subsidiary.

“The venture was a great success. We presented the range of training opportunities, from two-hour, self-directed sessions to post-graduate studies in preparation for undertaking an MBA at one of our affiliated universities, to a supportive and enthusiastic group of business leaders,” she said.

“We also found business people were interested in supporting e-learning with local networking and mentoring programs, so participants have the opportunity for personal contact as well as the convenience of on-line learning.”

“We’ll be following up the interest in e-learning through TheCyberInstitute and developing international mentoring programs.”

As Executive in Residence and Fellow of the Institute, Mrs Sheldon is an ambassador for AIM, as well as providing coaching and mentoring to senior executives in business and government.

“This sort of position has existed in academia, but I think this may be one of the only Executive in Residence positions in a private sector organisation,” she said.

“But it makes a lot of sense to enhance our support for top-level managers, as they try to cope with the challenges of today’s rapidly changing commercial environment.”

Mrs Sheldon retired from politics last year, after 14 years in the Queensland Parliament. In 1991, she was elected Leader of the Queensland Liberals, the first woman to lead a political party in the State. From 1996 to 1998, she was the State’s first female Deputy Premier and Treasurer and the first female acting Premier. This year, she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.

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