What key areas of opportunity or growth do you see in your sector, and what are your expectations for Cyprus in 2020?

I believe there is huge potential for the executive education and training sector in Cyprus. Given how this field has progressed during the past few years, I see several opportunities and areas of growth available to organizations that focus on providing high quality services to both the local and international market.

Firstly, executive education as a whole has become more thematically focused, diverse in terms of its participants, and very customer-centric.

Many of the training areas that are in high demand are directly tied to an organization’s business strategy. These programmes are practical in nature with a particular emphasis being placed on the coaching and mentoring of management and leadership teams. Furthermore, organisations are looking for more programmers, IT specialists and DevOps experts, so dedicated training programmes targeting these disciplines are also witnessing growth.

In terms of our target audiences, executive education has become multigenerational, focusing on groups of all ages and levels of experience, including a larger number of international clients who have chosen to travel to Cyprus to receive high-level training, coaching and certifications.

Most importantly, greater value is being placed on the learner’s overall experience with in-house and custom-made programmes for companies growing in popularity, as they allow for very specific learning areas to be addressed offering an immediate effect to the learner. In addition, companies today are more willing to work with their project management teams in agile or scrum training.

Secondly, e-learning has taken off across the globe as this style of training better caters to the modern-day professional who is less likely to spend a significant amount of time away from the office. Hence, shorter, more practical trainings delivered via e-learning—either fully or blended with in-class learning—are in greater demand. Furthermore, the emergence of e-learning perfectly complements an increased interest in professional qualifications (certificates, certifications, etc) for young professionals who do not have a relevant degree, or for individuals who want to boost their position and level of responsibility within a company.

Of course, we do expect a series of challenges for 2020. Competition in the field of executive education has risen in recent years, so it is paramount for organizations operating in this sector to differentiate and fully satisfy the client’s training and development demands.

To achieve this, organizations like EIMF need to find meaningful and accurate ways to track the impact of training initiatives in order to show clients the results of their investment in executive education and better market their services. Furthermore, the industry, both in Cyprus and abroad, must continue to explore effective ways to deliver training programmes and integrate these learning opportunities into people’s busy professional schedules.

I believe that it is paramount for organizations within this sector to develop symbiotic and long-lasting partnerships with different executive education and knowledge providers to best cater to their client needs.

With all of this in mind, I believe the future of executive education in Cyprus and the MENA region is very bright and we hope to play our part and contribute to the overall development of tomorrow’s professional.