Overview
Virtual
Enterprise is a program of study which requires students to learn and apply
concepts of business through a reality-based simulation of an actual business.
In the same way that commercial airline pilots are trained in a flight simulator,
Virtual Enterprise ("VE") students use a model of business reality
in order to learn the necessary skills to be successful in the current knowledge
and office based economy. Within these business models tomorrow’s employees
learn to make decisions and then see the impact on the enterprise as well as
a virtual economy of other simulated businesses. The VE course of study allows
for practical application of the concepts of business process, entrepreneurship,
risk management and teamwork. The applications for this program go beyond the
tourism and business curriculums, as successful VE programs have been established
in technology, engineering and the sciences.
The Institute
for Virtual Enterprise ("IVE") at CUNY provides
the strategic umbrella for developing and educating tomorrow’s
employees. The IVE is charged with setting the program’s learning
and assessment policies, while the individual CUNY
colleges are responsible for delivering lessons and plans. In essence,
the IVE governing system provides three key roles:
I.
Identifying and prioritizing current and future learning needs
IVE and its
advisors will need to determine the learning needs which will support
the strategies of the Virtual Enterprise program and those of the
individual private sector partners. IVE will constantly evaluate
the new skills necessary for our students to participate in overall
"real-world" business expansion.
II.
Linking training to these key business strategies
IVE will determine
how to link the training to the strategies as well as priorities
for investment of resources.
III.
Ensuring consistent design, development, delivery, and measurement
IVE
will first determine the procedures, processes, and standards for
training as well as the best solutions to cost effectively design,
develop, and deliver the learning programs.
A quick examination
of the education market indicates considerable change over the last
decade. The traditional 18 to 24-year-old full-time undergraduate
and graduate student, long the primary focus of four-year colleges
and universities, no longer represents an overwhelming majority
of the education market. According to the US Department of Education
1998 statistical release, twenty years ago this population accounted
for 80 percent of the market. Today, however, traditional full and
part-time students represent only 56 percent of the population pursuing
higher education. The future belongs to the nontraditional working
student now estimated to be 44 percent of the education market.
Together with
these changes in the population are several other important trends:
the rise of the nontraditional student as a consumer of education;
the rapid advancement of technology; the need for lifelong learning;
and the increase in experimentation with distance learning. Students
as consumers of education are seeking the same level of customer
service from their educational providers as they have become accustomed
to from their retailers and financial service providers. These consumers
are looking for convenience, self-service, and quality that can
help them advance in their careers. These trends are clearly beneficial
to the Virtual Enterprise programs.
The IVE views its marketplace
as one which has three sets of customers: general education customers, workforce
retraining and development customers, and contract learning customers. The
general education customers are those at CUNY member institutions, as well
as partner institutions and networks within the U.S. and abroad. The workforce
development customers are those private sector customers seeking structured
"school-to-career" management, and government sponsored students
in "welfare to work" programs. The contract learning customers
are private sector customers seeking pre-employment training, team building,
and entrepreneurial training for junior officers.
