UCC launch family business venture

TWO pioneering business courses for people managing family companies were launched in University College Cork yesterday.

These are the first family business courses to be offered by any Irish university and they are aimed at 75% of Irish companies which are family-run.

The M.Comm in Family Business Direction and the Diploma in Family Business Management will draw on national and international experience in family business. And the masters and diploma courses are especially designed to fit into people's work commitments. Launching the two courses, UCC president Professor Gerard Wrixon said they represented a new chapter for business executives and training.

"Family businesses account for over 50% of employment in the manufacturing and services sectors and they are essential to the vibrancy of the Irish economy because they generate 30% of all our business," Prof Wrixon added.

Stressing UCC's commitment to business development, Prof Wrixon said he hoped this initiative would respond to the demand for training in family businesses in the same way as the college had responded to the demand for graduates from multinational companies.

This initiative is the result of consultation between the Family Business Programme, the organisation representing many of the successful Irish firms, and UCC.

Freda Hayes of Blarney Woollen Mills and the Family Business Forum welcomed the initiative and advised all family businesses to grab this opportunity.

"Don't make the same mistake we did avoid problems that occur at the early stages of family businesses by learning from this new programme," Ms Hayes said.

These new courses will form the basis of a developing Centre for Family Business at UCC and they will be run by Dr Joan Buckley and Bill O'Gorman of the Department of Management and Marketing.

The masters degree is aimed at senior people within long-established family businesses, while the diploma course will suit those managing a family business or sons or daughters who want to get into the family company.

There are 15 places on the masters degree and 24 on the diploma course which start in January.