A SPOC to teach industrial relations at ESCP Europe

ESCP Europe’s Industrial Relations and Firms’ Competitiveness Chair, signed with Airbus, Groupe Renault, Sodexo and Solvay, is creating the first-ever SPOC (Small Private Online Course) dedicated to social dialogue.

Promoting proactive, innovative industrial relations to support business performance

Industrial relations cannot be confined to theoretical instruction, delivered by specialists made up of Human Resources managers and social partners. ESCP Europe’s aim was to offer 50% academic content and 50% operational insight. By blending lectures, case studies and video testimonials, the SPOC “Labour Relations SPOC: stretching preconceived ideas!“, creates a dialogue between the course and businesses.

This online private course designed for students in the MiM and MBA in International Management programs allows them to build new knowledge in keeping with ESCP Europe’s mission to train and prepare the leaders of tomorrow.

This SPOC represents one 15-hour ECTS credit and includes the following modules:

1. Definitions, challenges and context of industrial relations
2. Corporate industrial relations: stakeholders, overview and realities
3. Facilitating industrial relations in firms: collective bargaining
4. International industrial relations and current outlook
5. Facilitating industrial relations in firms: from the local to the global level

The Chair’s corporate partners appear in video testimonials for the SPOC, along with partners from other chairs, such as Safran (partner for the Factory for the Future Chair), providing operational insight and discussing examples of national or international situations.

The SPOC also draws on international professors who present the major challenges facing industrial relations today and offer a forward-looking view, along with the Chair team, made up of Jean-François Pilliard, President of the Chair, Maria Koutsovoulou, Scientific Director and Patrice Laroche, Chairman of the Scientific Committee. As they describe it, “the SPOC allows students to build a common basis of knowledge in industrial relations and explore the topic through a variety of approaches and testimonies from a wide range of stakeholders in order to stimulate debate on this issue.”

The digital revolution as an opportunity to rethink teaching methods and change the way students learn about key management topics.

This SPOC is the latest addition to ESCP Europe’s digital course offerings, expanding the already wide range of course formats. Our catalogue includes online certificates such as the one dedicated to the digital transformation of companies, refresher courses for its initial training program, an 100% online Executive Master in International Business (EMIB) available in Spanish, English and French and 4 MOOCs:

• Understanding Ecology for an Innovative Economy
• Intercultural Management
• Doing Business In Europe
• Preparatory course for business schools: the right path for me?

Supported by a research programme that brings together seven international teams, the Chair organizes seminars and workshops to connect research with the various stakeholders in industrial relations. Learn more here