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	With business management knowledge fit for the recovery Tuning for your career: Distance learning for your technical, methodological and self-learning skills by Dr. Ralf Andreas Thoma The economic engine in Europe and the world is still not quite round: The management consultancy McKinsey expects spite of the current economic crisis, an imminent labor shortage in Europe. Already in five years, firms offer more jobs than they could then fill yet, according to a recent study by the company. Therefore, workers and businesses need to be prepared for the recovery. With part-time training in distance education - especially in the business discipline - you can increase your technical, methodical and self-learning skills. The individual employee can maintain and improve his job and career opportunities and the companies improves their human capital. Building your expertise 77 percent of companies consider technical expertise particularly relevant, 30 percent social skills, 20 percent staff expertise and 13 percent methodological expertise (according to the European survey Continuing Vocational Training Survey CVTS3). For the future, experts expect a higher weight of the cross-disciplinary skills (personal, methodological and social competence). For the expertise they expect about the same. It is for sure, that expertise is considered as a key criterion for setting a candidate. If the candidate can meet this requirements, he has reached an important goal. Business knowledge There is no substitute for comprehensive business knowledge. Especially in times before a recovery, it is important for individuals to get ready for the good times and to acquire the knowledge in an efficient way. Against the background of the expected shortage of skilled workers, companies should always be eager to keep their staff. In the case of a broad training in business administration, it is not about to train specialists in various disciplines, such as controlling or marketing. Rather, existing knowledge will be deepened. The informed discussion with professionals of different areas of a company should thus be possible. The key models and concepts of classical economics should be known and practically applied in addition. Training in business administration should provide the essential instruments in business administration. The goal is to understand, evaluate and analyze the essential key figures and concepts. The combination of business know-how and individual expertise can help to find new ways and solutions. Methods Competence Employees today are very busy in their professional and private lives. Therefore intensive courses must be extra-occupational and flexible. Very often participants are in a phase of further development, restructuring or orientation towards new ideas. Further education must be designed to be integrated well into their individual professional and personal lives. For a successful completion of a distance learning course the participant is faced with the following challenges: organising one's time, dealing with stress and finding motivation. The organisation and execution of our Intensive Courses are especially designed to support our participants in facing these challenges in the best possible way. It is therefore particularly important to establish the methodological expertise. Organization and operations of a distance learning course must therefore be designed to help students to meet these challenges. As a further methodological skills in a distance education students should learn the scientific work, the distinction between essential and inessential and the processing and structuring of knowledge Self-Learning Competence determines the success Self-Learning Competence is a very important skill to be successfull in a distance learning course and in modern business life. Self-Learning Competence is the ability to independently plan and implement a learning process according to the individual strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to find for my personality appropriate learning strategies to develop and apply. This includes the ability to motivate yourself, set goals and pursue them consistently and - if necessary - adapt. In a survey conducted by the Research Institute for Vocational Training (f-bb) among 193 companies from the metal, electrical and IT industry and 500 workers, the self-learning skills (90 percent) are the most important skills before the communication skills (84 percent), problem solving and conflict resolution skills (79 percent) and teamwork (71 percent). Only those who are able to quickly and accurately learn the relevant knowledge, update it and separate the essential from the inessential, will be successfull in the long term. Critical to the success of learning is the contribution of the learner's own. Further education without moving It is important for distance learners to set clear priorities in their own learning environment of friends, family and work. Work and study can be combined perfectly in a distance learning course without change of location. The right knowledge at the right time and at the right place saves resources. Conclusion: Training pays off for students, but also for companies. Lifelong learning strengthens the competencies. About BWI / Betriebswirtschaftliches Institut & Seminar Basel, Switzerland One of the advantages of a private institution of training and further education is its ability to recognize economic and social developments at a very early stage and to react to these developments flexibly by immediately making adequate adjustments to the courses of study according to the latest requirements. Our courses are designed in such a way that there is no need of a time-consuming and theory-heavy study of literature. Our main objective is the practice-oriented, compact and systematic advancement of knowledge in business administration. Participants learn how to apply their newly gained skills in practice for the benefit of their company. Founded in Basel/Switzerland in 1999, the Betriebswirtschaftliches Institut und Seminar Basel AG is a private institute of further education offering a variety of practice-oriented and efficient courses of study. Over 100 participants enrol on the intensive courses each year. The Institute is eduQua-certified and member of the SVEB (Swiss Association for Adult Education) and the European Association of Distance Learning (EADL). Further information: Betriebswirtschaftliches Institut und Seminar Basel AG Dr. Ralf Andreas Thoma Eisengasse 6 CH-4051 Basel / Switzerland Telephone +41 (0)61 261 2000 Telefax +41 (0)61 261 6636 E-Mail: info@bwl-institut.ch Internet: www.business-education.ch