ACSBE and Open Acadia Team Up to Help Small Business
ACSBE and Open Acadia do more than just share a building (Willett House) – we are working together to build two new professional development programs that will help enhance the performance of small businesses and business advisors across the country.
“It’s a perfect fit,” says Andy Horsnell, Manager of Professional Development, ACSBE. “Our growing partnership with Open Acadia is giving us the ability to help a much greater number of people - in ways that previously just wouldn’t have been possible.”
Late in 2010, ACSBE approached Open Acadia about tapping into their expertise and technology to convert ACSBE’s existing two-day workshops into online programs. With funding from ACOA Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, the first program, Growth Strategies for Small Business, was developed over the summer of 2011 and was tested in a pilot the following fall with 20 business advisors and their clients from across Nova Scotia. Feeedback has been very positive.
“We are working collaboratively with ACSBE to explore opportunities to identify and implement strategic use of online teaching technologies to engage and support online learning, explains Shelly Vaughan-Hazlett, Coordinator, New Program Development and Internal Processes, Open Acadia. “Both parties are exploring the use of virtual classroom technologies and enhanced course design to provide blended professional development.”
A second program, Survival Skills for Business Counsellors, is currently being developed, and testing is targeted to begin in September, for an early 2013 launch.
“This is only the beginning of our work together. New programs are in development, including Financial Analysis and Succession Planning, to be rolled out in 2013,” announces Horsnell.
