10 May 2008

Distance Study Booming at AIM

AIM’s graduate program, featuring the eight unit Graduate Diploma in Management Innovation and the four unit Graduate Certificate Professional Management, is being snapped up in the distance education mode around Queensland and Australia.

“Our Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate consist of courses that are contemporary, practical and relevant to the workplace. The courses are available through a range of delivery modes making it easy for busy managers to upskill without having to compromise current work commitments,” CEO Carolyn Barker AM FAIM said.

“We have been particularly overwhelmed with the response to our distance programs… they seem to have hit the sweet spot. People are relishing the opportunity to study at home in their own time as an alternative to attending face to face lectures, and employers are seeing the value of developing employees located in or assigned to remote locations,” Ms Barker said.

AIM’s graduate programs sit along side its other educational streams. The Institute is accredited in its own right as an autonomous higher education provider, and its Graduate Diploma Management Innovation and Graduate Certificate Professional Management are now housed within a division known as the Graduate Studies Centre (GSC).

Courses are offered in three modes – face to face, intensive and distance. Students can move between modes in order to complete their qualification in the way that best suits their lifestyle and commitments.

GSC courses are led by experienced managers who combine academic and teaching qualifications with current business experience. AIM’s underpinning philosophy of by managers for managers ensures best practice Australian examples and case studies are incorporated in all materials.

Steven De Keijzer, a GSC distance student, found that AIM graduate programs provided the flexibility that universities could not match. Mr De Keijzer will use the AIM pathway to an MBA with one of the the Institute’s partner universities.

“AIM was helpful and accommodating. I can do my study with them and, providing I achieve the appropriate grades, articulate straight into an MBA program with subjects that I have done through the Graduate Studies Centre,” he said.

“AIM is flexible in their approach, especially to distance education, and their facilitators are approachable, knowledgeable and have high expectations. Their feedback on assignments is current, concise, relevant and non judgemental,” said Mr De Keijzer. “And I could start each distance education unit any time I wanted.”

In addition to assigning each distance student a dedicated lecturer for contact, the GSC sets itself apart from other tertiary institutions by offering a tailored, one on one service to assist students to map out their study cycle.

If you are planning for the next step in your management development, contact the Graduate Studies Centre to book a one on one study coaching session with the GSC Director.