Hard times for working students

Studying for a degree at night is tough if you're working full-time and trying to attend lectures four evenings a week. Recognising this, the Irish Management Institute came up with the idea of running its BA in management on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Judging by the uptake for this year's course, the timing suits a lot of people. Because its students all work full-time, the IMI tries to make things easy by providing books and meals. Potential students should be over 25 and have at least seven years work experience. No other qualifications are required. The fees are around £4,000 per annum and most students are paid for by their employers.

Joe Lynam, who works for Siemens, is a second year student. "I found myself in middle management with little academic qualifications other than those learned in the proverbial university of life," he says. "So I joined the programme at the IMI and I can say it is not what I expected. It is certainly giving me the skills to understand the principles of business and management, but it is also giving me the skills to really understand people."

One of Lynam's fellow students is Bill Kane who works for Creative Labs. "Friday afternoons used to represent the beginning of the weekend. How life has changed," he says. "Now I have a crammed sandwich, make a dash across the infamous M50 and eventually arrive at the IMI. Initially, nothing made sense very gradually, the pieces start to fall into place. You start to relate material to day to day situations in the workplace and you start to have a greater understanding of what it is to be a manager."

Kane's views are echoed by second-year student, Sinead Murphy. "Unlike your school days where you struggle to see the significance of theorems and Peig, the course content on this degree is on target from the minute you set foot in a lecture hall," she says.

Topics covered in the first year include management, organisational behaviour and information technology. The next intake of students is not until September 2001, but as the course fills up fast you should get your name on the list if you're interested. For details contact John Mangan at (01) 2078574 or e-mail john.mangan@imi.ie