Applied Knowledge Exchange

The Applied Knowledge Exchange sponsored a successful Social Enterprise colloquium here at GCU this week.

We joined special guest speakers Karen Gilligan from Kibble, Tony Traynor from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Roana Dickson from GCU’s School of Health and Heather Sim from Space Unlimited.

Our speakers talked with our MBA and fourth year students about the development of Social Enterprises - a hot topic for the Scottish Government. Very interesting stuff! We will be at the S2S fair to get involved in promoting Social Enterprise next month.

Scottish businesses are being offered a new grant of £1,000 by the Scottish Government to take on an apprentice. The £4 million scheme will run until March 26 and is available for up to 4000 employers.

The scheme is part of ScotAction, a scheme to help individuals and businesses through the recession and provide skills assistance for training for work, training in work and training from work to work to help Scottish people and businesses survive the downturn and thrive when the economy starts to recover.

Glasgow Caledonian University is also offering businesses bespoke study programmes and part-time education to allow them to boost their employees’ skills set. To find out more, contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange on 0141 331 3189.

Forty percent of Scotland’s students are now taking part-time study options as people try to balance work with studying. The Scottish Government has also provided financial assistance for part-time students.

The Open University and Scotland’s universities have seen soaring interest in part-time options, particularly in science, technology and engineering subjects. There are over 272,000 students in Scotland, of which 110,000 are part-time.

Here at Glasgow Caledonian University, we can offer part-time education programmes to allow workers to study in the evenings or top up their skills with flexible work-based learning.

Let the Applied Knowledge Exchange help your business boost its staff skills with part-time studying.

Glasgow Caledonian University is already gearing up for a busy year of new courses and seminars created especially for businesses.

First up is a new Top Up MSc programme in Human Resource Management, aimed at HR and business professionals who already hold the postgraduate Diploma in HRM and would like to advance to MSc level.

Launching on Thursday 4th February 2010, the course involves two taught modules comprising Consulting for Strategic Change, and Leadership and HR Management.

Launching this spring, Economics for Equality is a short course to help policy makers, community activists and businesses to understand how talking the language of economics can help in the promotion of gender equality.

Economics for Equality will provide your organisation with a supportive learning environment to explore the relevance of gender and the economy to public spending, policy making and your business.

Also on the cards for March 2010 is Glasgow Caledonian University’s Postgraduate Certificate in Social Enterprise is the only postgraduate degree in Scotland designed specifically for the growing Social Enterprise sector. It was developed through the collaboration of Glasgow Caledonian University and the Scottish Social Enterprise Academy to provide organisations with techniques to aid them in demonstrate greater entrepreneurial flair, innovation and self-reliance. The year-long part-time course has been designed to meet the needs of busy professionals and has been designed for flexibility around three weekends.

For more information on any of these courses, click here or contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange on 0141 331 3125.

Smaller firms with fewer than 500 employees are now likely to be exempt from rules in the new Equality Bill as Harriet Harman tries to ensure the legislation is passed before the general election next year.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s Department of Economic Studies and International Business is launching a new series of short courses for businesses eager to understand the language of economics to help them promote gender equality.

The course, which will be available from March 2010, helps policy makers to develop more robust and informed policy regarding their obligations towards the Scottish Government’s Gender Equality Duty and the forthcoming Equality Bill. It supports community activists by sharing experiences and by developing the tools and knowledge to hold decision-makers to account. It will allow the private sector to better understand legislation.

Businesses can also ask for bespoke course content and modules to suit their business needs. Oxfam was among the first organisations to use material from the Economics for Equality course, running pilots this year attended by 25 policy makers and community activists.

The new courses will be led by Ailsa McKay, Professor in Gender and Economics, who has worked extensively in the field of gender budget analysis.

To find out more about how Economics for Equality could work for your business, contact Fiona.Ramsay@gcal.ac.uk at the Applied Knowledge Exchange, or A.McKay@gcal.ac.uk.

Professor J John Lennon, Director of the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development at Glasgow Caledonian University, delivered modular teaching input in Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) in Blantyre as part of an MSc International Tourism Enterprise being delivered by the University.

This will see eight members of MIT faculty upgrade their qualifications and allow for new teaching material and knowledge to filter into the institution. 

This is part of a long term commitment to upgrade and develop MIT that is being undertaken by the Moffat Centre with the financial support of the Scottish Government. Grant assistance for two projects was awarded to the Moffat Centre which has incorporated the construction and development of information communications technology teaching facilities, library building and related learning resources, the development of food service and food production facilities and the development of short course training programmes for the Malawian tourism industry.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange can also facilitate short course training or bespoke educational packages for your business.

Jerry Morris, a Glasgow-educated epidemiologist who recently died aged 99, has been credited as “the man who invented exercise”.

His research was vital in showing the links between exercise and health. In 1948, he helped found the Medical Research Council’s social medicine unit. His work focused on coronary heart disease and physical activity and infant mortality. Later, in the 1950s, Jerry’s book Uses of Epidemiology was used as a blueprint for public health activities and influenced the reform of health and social services under the Labour governments.

Here at Glasgow Caledonian University’s School of Health and Social Care, Dr Morag Thow is doing vital work in the investigation of cardiac rehabilitation.

Scotland has one of the highest levels of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease in the UK and the world. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is the key method of providing secondary prevention and
improving prognosis and quality of live for those who survive a cardiac event. In 1985 the first comprehensive exercise-based programme in Scotland was established in Glasgow. Glasgow Caledonian University  established the first Masters cardiac rehabilitation education programme for clinical specialists in 1998. Learn more about our work here.

The School of Health and Social Care at Glasgow Caledonian University is committed to developing professionally relevant training, which is responsive to local, national and international developments within healthcare provision. HealthQWest, an innovative £4.9million research consortium based at higher education institutions and the health services across the west of Scotland, was launched at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange can help your business with professional healthcare training, research and problem solving. Contact Dr Andy McNair to find out more.