Corruption in the health care industry became a point of political debate this year, culminating in the German federal government drafting legislation to combat this particular type of corruption. To address the gaps left behind by current practices and the risks associated with them in the health care industry, the School of Governance, Risk & Compliance (School GRC) at Steinbeis University Berlin (SHB) has developed a certification course that is specifically tailored to the requirements of the health care industry. The next course starts in early 2016.
The course involves 5 days of classroom sessions from Feb 29–March 2, and on March 14–15, providing a fast-track introduction by looking at the topics of anticorruption measures, laws forbidding illegal payments, hospital compliance, self-monitoring in the pharmaceuticals industry, combating inappropriate behavior, internal enquiries, and compliance itself. The course was developed under the supervision of legal expert Dr. Daniel Geiger, who worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry before specializing as an attorney in medical law. The certification course is targeted at specialists and managers at pharmaceutical companies, businesses involved in the provision of medical products, hospitals, medical services centers, convalescence centers, health insurance companies, health providers, medical associations, and specialist doctors’ associations.
Graduates of the last certification course included legal expert Sandra Kuwatsch, who has been head of personnel and law at the Leipzig University Hospital since 2012 and performs a key role as the person responsible for compliance at the health provider. “The HCO certification course is an ideal foundation for me, providing the best possible way to establish and expand on my role as a compliance officer. The lecturers in the different topics were an outstanding choice and were excellent at introducing me to different legal aspects, with practical tips on investigation principles.”
After the course, the participants have the option of taking an exam and thus gaining a university certificate from Steinbeis University Berlin. This certificate will be recognized for those who want to become a Certified Compliance Expert in Healthcare (CCE-HC) or who would like to complete an MBA and specialize in compliance and white-collar crime.
Despite the large proportion of renewable energy used on the domestic energy grid in Costa Rica, the country is still struggling with continually rising energy prices. Electricity prices in the country have more than doubled in the last decade alone. At the same time, local industry representatives say that energy prices are the most important factor in limiting the competitiveness of industry. Thanks to a collaboration between local universities, the environment and energy ministry, electricity providers, technology suppliers, the Costa Rican chamber of commerce CICR, and German experts on development cooperation, one answer has been found regarding the strong demand for effective energy know-how: qualification as an Administrador de la Energía. This is the result of a joint initiative between the CICR, a regional energy program called 4E run by GIZ GmbH (the German Association of International Collaboration), and the competence institute unison, a Steinbeis Transfer Institute at Steinbeis University Berlin.
The training course offered 120 hours of tuition and was attended by local experts, with more than 50 people from 40 private and public institutions. Aside from the purely technical aspects, particular emphasis was placed on the feasibility of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as local legislation and quality standards. To pass the course, participants have to put their knowledge to practical use at work and present their results to the group. The theory modules are underpinned by workshops, panel discussions, and study trips. The program is so successful that it has been on offer in Honduras since last year thanks to collaboration with the local chamber of industry. Since this year, it has also been on offer in Guatemala through the Camara de Industrias de Guatemala.
“Steinbeis certification helps us to achieve homogeneity in Central America across different programs, raising the standards of tertiary training and providing a point of comparability,” confirms Rodrigo Jimenez, director of the continuing professional development unit at the CICR. Working directly with industry is an essential tool in achieving the required savings in energy consumption. The CICR has been offering first specialization programs on the topic of transparency (“Iluminacion”) since 2015. The course lasts 60 hours and has been a total success with more than 35 participants. It is a direct response to the high level of demand for greater expertise in the Costa Rican industry. Thanks to a joint initiative between the local chamber of commerce and Steinbeis University Berlin, aimed at offering the program with a university certificate, staff training has become more appealing to industry.
The next 120-hour course to become an Administrador de la Energia starts in April 2016 and the next 60-hour course to become an Especialista en Iluminacion y Eficiencia Energetica in Costa Rica is planned for July 2016.
Peter Schust, Claus-Bernhardt Johst
Steinbeis Transfer Institute kompetenz institut unisono (Ulm)
Deutsche Telekom promotes “life-long learning” among employees through collaboration with a variety of universities. The School of Management and Technology (SMT) at Steinbeis University Berlin (SHB) has been an alliance partner of Deutsche Telekom AG since 2015, offering a selection of collaborative master’s degree programs. Two degrees under the collaborative agreement are the Master of Science in Controlling & Consulting and the Master of Business Engineering. At the core of all master degree programs lie project skills in keeping with the project competence degree (PCD), plus a project carried out at Deutsche Telekom or one of its subsidiaries.
A top priority of the project competence degree is to transfer and directly apply what has been learned during the seminars into the project work.. Because acquired knowledge dovetails directly with the project and an innovative workplace task, it is ensured that students implement projects based on scientifically sound, using practical, and results-oriented methods.
“The PCD allows us to offer firms a valuable tool as they compete for the best people in the war for talents. Combining a degree with a project that relates directly to practice helps not only with recruitment but also with staff retention. Students get the chance to gain a master’s degree while they gather their first professional experience, and because the program’s based on modules, they’re not kept away from their work,” explains Dr. Walter Beck, CEO of the Steinbeis Center of Management and Technology.
The Master of Business Engineering (MBER) was the founding degree program of the SHB. It combines scientific knowledge with technology topics, thus ideally preparing students for the stension between technology and economics. The Master of Science in Controlling & Consulting (MCC) arms students with consulting tools and advisory skills, offering in-depth training in fields such as leadership-based accounting, planning, financial control, and international accounting, thus addressing the increasing demands placed on management accountants and business consultants. The first students on the master’s alliance program started working toward their degree last fall.
As in other areas, in construction management success revolves around the qualifications of management. Given the situation in the employment market, small and medium-sized construction companies are particularly dependent on promoting up-and-coming specialists through in-house training programs, just in order to safeguard quality in the long term. The Rastatt-based construction firm weisenburger bau GmbH has developed a training program with the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Site Management and Business Development designed to keep its site managers up to speed with current demands.
Demands in the field of construction have become more complex and firms are only competitive if they keep pace with developments – just two reasons why weisenburger bau trains and certifies its young managers as part of an executive degree lasting four semesters to become a Certified Site Manager (Steinbeis). In-house training takes place at the weisenburger Akademie, which offers practical tuition worth 120 credits and is taught by professional external and internal lecturers to ensure that training matches the very latest state of knowledge.
The topics dealt with during the degree include the philosophy of weisenburger, the personality of site and project managers, and the fundamentals of turnkey construction. The building blocks of the training are offered in modules revolving around clearly defined objectives derived from weisenburger’s guiding principles, the skills and content that need to be learned, and the specific tasks of site managers. Aside from the purely technical aspects, time is also invested in the personal development of managers and team-working skills. Working alongside Steinbeis, the degree allows weisenburger to certify between 40 and 50 managers every year.
For the last five years, the Steinbeis Center of Management and Technology (SCMT) has enjoyed a closed partnership with Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT). To mark this milestone, a two-day visit to Stuttgart was organized in September with a 10-strong Japanese delegation. The TUAT and SCMT organized the exchange with the aim of building on the long-standing alliance.
The delegation was headed up by Professor Chiba and Professor Akisawa, who both attended an innovation seminar held by Prof. Dr. Gunter Herr, Professor at Steinbeis University Berlin and director of the WOIS Innovation School. The seminar provided insights into the “Steinbeis Education Method” and the Project Competence Degree (PCD) at Steinbeis University Berlin.
The focus lay in the principles behind the PCD and the way it makes use of models and methods by applying these to projects across Europe. The transfer of content to everyday tasks in the workplace is central to this approach and this was something of a revelation for future Japanese managers. A presentation highlighting the idiosyncrasies of European culture, key aspects of a market entry in Germany, and the collaboration plans of Germany companies was also given. These topics were looked at using case studies. A cultural highlight at the end of the Japanese delegation’s stay was a meal together with Swabian cuisine and the handing out of the certificates.
The Master of Business Engineering (MBER) has been offering a stay in Japan since the very first degree program was introduced at the SHB in 1998. The key to success of the PCD programs offered by the SCMT is their international outlook and the clear connection to regional economic differences. Close collaboration makes it possible to provide realistic insights into economic and cultural factors, thus going beyond pure classroom teaching. The close relationship with Japan and the professional nature of the partnership can also be attributed to Sachihiki Kobori. As president of Steinbeis Japan Inc., he has played an important part in this transfer of knowledge since 1999.
Emotions move people, resulting in doubts but also hopes and bringing people together. And almost everything that people do is in order to experience certain emotions or avoid them. The ability to deal with emotions – experienced personally or by others – has a major influence on whether people are happy, healthy, or successful in life. This lies at the core of emotional intelligence – the ability to perceive your own feelings and the feelings of others properly, to understand them, and influence them positively. Working in collaboration with the Eilert Academy of Emotional Intelligence, the competence institute unisono, a Steinbeis Transfer Institute at Steinbeis University Berlin, now offers a module-based university certification course to become a “Trainer in Emotional Intelligence (SHB).”
Emotional intelligence is fundamental to one’s ability to understand oneself and others better. It could even be described as a kind of macroability which dictates how people use other abilities. It makes it possible to exploit one’s personal potential. But it is not something one is born with – it has to be developed.
Through a series of individual coaching sessions and group exercises, the Steinbeis course teaches students how to foster emotional intelligence and resolve possible barriers. It is module-based in so far as each participant can choose their own rate of learning through different blocks of seminars. They can also gain partial qualifications, for example as an “Emotion Coach (SHB)” or as a “Facial Expression Analyst, Eilert Methods (SHB).”
The university certificate as a “Trainer in Emotional Intelligence (SHB)” not only makes it possible for students to gain in-depth and practical training on emotional intelligence, but also provide evidence to the outside world of the scientific basis and sustainable quality of their competence. This is a key success factor for all trainers and coaches, since the vast offering of products has made the seminar and coaching market somewhat bewildering to clients.
Gudrun Jürß, Dirk W. Eilert
Steinbeis Transfer Institute kompetenz institut unisono (Ulm)