MBA students from The Robert Gordon University are to complete their degrees by providing business consultancy services to Aberdeen based engineering partner, Prospect.
The five full-time postgraduate students are Rosa Ceberio-Robertson (36) from Spain; Talur Aminu Raji (39) from Nigeria, Seye Oke (27) from Nigeria, Adeola Olawale (34) from London, and Soji Festus-Olagbende (33) from Nigeria. They will spend their summer developing a policy document detailing how an SME can motivate and retain staff through re-defining their strategy for individual career progression. To kick-start the project, the MBA students today met with Prospect’s managing director, Jonathan D’Arcy, and other members of the senior management team.
After the meeting Jonathan D’Arcy said: “The project is topical given the widely reported recruitment and retention difficulties facing companies in the oil and gas sector. SMEs feel the pressure of the current market conditions perhaps more so than large organisations as they aim to attract and retain people through offering opportunities for career progression and professional development. This SME focused study will be solely based on our organisation and will form an integral part of our future human resources strategy – the recommendations will be critical to our business.”
Over a three month period, the student consultants will have the opportunity to access Prospect’s employees for one-to-one interviews before writing up their findings and recommendations which will be presented to Jonathan D’Arcy in September.
Commenting on the value of the experience to the MBA consultants, Philip Burge, Lecturer at RGU and University project co-ordinator said: “Putting what they have learned at university into a real life situation is undoubtedly an invaluable experience for these young professionals. The project will allow them to develop a whole range of workplace and management skills which will help their career development as well as bringing valuable skills to their future employers.”