P.W. Sims Business Program Business Program committee action plan 2008-2009 YEAR END REPORT OVERVIEW OF THE YEAR:
It has been a succesful year for the business program and the business program committee has shown support all through the year for the different orientations the business program had established. Some of the issues concerned were brought from student feedback received over the past few years, and we have managed to make important improvements in the program that will certainly increase student satisfaction and student success. The fact that the Fall and Winter semesters in the program, mostly during the second year of the technique, were unbalanced was an issue that both Social science and humanities representatives understood and willingly supported the suggestion to switch Economics for business from Fall to Winter, a 5-hour course with a Humanities course which is only 3 hours per week. A pilot project with Phys-Ed gave also great results. Students were asked to buy a polar watch to keep track of their training, which they did on their own and then reported once a week to their teachers. The majority of the students on the pilot project noticed significant improvement in their health and their grades overall. The level of concentration and motivation was improved and consequently, many of them performed better academically as well. All of our objectives were met or exceeded. We will continue to work in the same direction next year, keeping with the program approach.
ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED: 1. Evaluation report of the Business Program and action plan follow up 2. Integration of the new IPESA into generic course plans 3. Integration of Business students in the program committee 4. PW Sims Business Program’s progression
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IMPLEMENTA TION SCHEDULE: Action 1: Business program evaluation report and action plan follow up After approval of the business program evaluation report and action plan, the business department will continue to implement the action plan. The main issues for the year will be: 1. Assess the feasibility of adding a second marketing-related 410 program: Business Management 410.D0. 2. Continue to approach English universities in the province for possible DEC-BAC agreements 3. Review the timing, length and nature of Internship I, and make appropriate changes to the generic course plan 4. Complete follow-up on the other ongoing recommendations on the action plan
STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS TAKEN:
RESULTS
1. Hélène Binette and Paul Bleau were designated to continue the implementation of the action plan. An initial report has been submitted both to the department and program committee demonstrating the high interest in a program with more international components. The administration supported our report and has agreed to offer some release time to continue the feasibility Fall 2008 and assessment report during the next academic year. Mr. Paul Winter 2009 Bleau will continue this project next year. 2. A DEC-BAC agreement has been concluded with Bishop University and partial credit recognition with Concordia University has also been recognized. We are proud to also add Griffith University in Australia to this list. Students can be admitted in the International business program after their Fall 2008 DEC and complete a Bachelors in international business within 1 year. 3 of our graduates are already in the process of going. Fall2008 and 3. Internship 1 has been extended to 75 hours of Internship Winter 2009 and 15 hours of in-class work. 4. Economics for business has been transferred to the winter semester and World views will be taken in the fall for our 2nd year students. This should help to even out the work load of our students. (see appendix 1)
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Action 2: Integration of the new IPESA into generic course plans All the Generic course outlines and course outlines for the Generic course plans for the Winter winter semester courses have been modified to meet the courses of semesters 4 and 6 are to be new standards. presented to the committee for approval. Semester 2 Generic course plans were approved at the same time as the Generic course plans for Fall 2008 Semesters 1,3 and 5. According to the business action plan, we will ‘Adjust generic course plans as necessary, as part of the IPESA update.’ (Recommendation no. A3.2a) Action 3: integration of students in the program committee In the fall semester, 3 students, one from each year was A student representative from each of chosen to participate as a member in the program the 3 years will be included as a voting Fall 2008 committee. To increase student participation, it was member of the program committee. agreed at the last program committee meeting that a substitute be also voted for each of the 3 years to ensure stronger student participation for next year. Action 4: PW Sims Business program’s progression Announcements were made to keep committee The committee members will be members informed of ongoing activities and the informed of ongoing activities developed in the newly renamed Fall 2008 and development of the PW Sims program Winter 2009 Business programme.
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Appendix 1 Report on action plan item for Planning for new program option (Hélène Binette and Paul Bleau) Over the fall semester, most work centered on gathering information on programs in other CEGEPs that were of any other nature but accounting. Data and documents were compiled and then shared for future use. In the winter semester, the analysis phase involved the analysis of many documents and studies on globalization, employment profiles for the future, SLC competition (other CEGEP technical business programs), outlook for future student populations, SLC student surveys and green industries, and others. The other part of the analysis involved gathering input from individual teachers as well as group meetings, input from current SLC students, sec V students, and members of the SLC administration. The next step was to produce various proposals in project form to be debated and modified by the Business Department members. A final document was prepared for final approval by the Business Department and Business Program Committee. A presentation was then made to Pierre Choquette and Michèle Deshaies who also gave feedback which led to final modifications to the working document.
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