Western Continuing Studies Helps Students Prepare for Working in Today's Global Economy

January 24, 2017 - A study jointly sponsored by Maxus Global and the Financial Times in early 2015 noted that change is "the number one challenge businesses are facing today." The survey of 152 c-level executives plus 56 senior and middle managers, identified a wide range of change drivers that are disrupting entire industries and economies. The study concluded that "existing protocols are gone and businesses have to constantly re-write the rules to remain relevant."

Business leaders must deal with the pressure to change and the increasing pace of change; yet, many do not have the skills to do so. The Economist (March 16, 2016) notes that "while change is positively embraced as a cause for excitement […] only 2 percent of our business leaders currently feel personally prepared for change." Given this situation, how can business professionals better prepare to meet this growing challenge?

Western Continuing Studies in London, Ontario can help. It has launched a new course titled "Business Analysis: Planning and Communication." The course focuses on a relatively new profession that has emerged over the past two decades: business analysis. "A business analyst is part of a transformation team responsible for identifying and explaining the business' requirements to those responsible for building solutions that will meet the transformational goals," says Christine Wilton, Program Manager for Western Continuing Studies. "This course explains the role of the business analyst and teaches some of the foundational skills such as stakeholder analysis, requirements gathering, and (most importantly) managing the requirements changes that will emerge during the life of the transformation project."

Western Continuing Studies offers the course in partnership with Procept Associates Ltd., one of Canada's leading corporate training and consulting firms, whose business analysis practice was honoured with the "Chartered Endorsed Education Provider" designation by the International Institute for Business Analysis, the premiere global standards setting organization for the new profession.

The first offering of this new course starts on February 16, 2017 at the downtown London, Ontario location of Western Continuing Studies. The instructor for this session, Kathleen Gillis, is known for her pioneering business analysis work at the Bank of Montreal, Consumers Gas and several other Canadian companies. For more information on the course, visit http://bit.ly/2kjUk2B.


ABOUT WESTERN CONTINUING STUDIES
A division of Western University in London, Ontario, Western Continuing Studies offers courses and programs designed to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners – from two-day to 12-week courses, both daytime and evening classes, delivered face-to-face and online. Every year more than 3000 adult learners enroll in courses for professional development and personal enrichment at Western Continuing Studies. For every one of those students, the decision to return to the classroom can be life changing. Find out more at http://wcs.uwo.ca

ABOUT PROCEPT ASSOCIATES LTD.
Procept Associates Ltd. is a leader in management education with offices coast-to-coast across Canada as well as in the USA and overseas. Procept started operations in London, Ontario in 1983 and its USA-based subsidiary started in 1965. Procept provides training on behalf of several Canadian and US universities, is the official management training provider to many government bodies, and provides in-house training to many corporations and non-profit organizations. Find out more at http://www.procept.com