The Minister of Education believes that there is a desire to increase the number of graduates with analytical skills in Brazil to make it better able to compete across a range of industries. The Minister of Education has decided that it must be a priority for Brazil to have postgraduates with a strong foundation in different core subjects, such as engineering, biology, physics, computing, and so on, supplemented with analytical skills.
The Minister of Education has identified three broad options for going forward. However, he is aware that you have an MBA and is keen for alternative suggestions to be proposed. The hree options he has identified are below.
- Option A - Send Students to Study Abroad: The Minister of Education is aware of different universities in the UK, USA, Portugal, Singapore, amongst other countries, which provide excellent courses in analytical methods. He has suggested that the best students in the country could be funded to go abroad and learn new skills. When these students return, they would be identified and placed into fast-track programmes within international and government organisations. The Minister also believes that exposure to different cultures and working practices would be extremely useful, however, is concerned about students returning. He is also concerned that this may be a short term solution to a long term problem. He believes that the cost of this option is low and that it offers him the flexibility to change direction if a future skills shortage is identified.
- Option B - Bring Teaching into Brazil: The Minister of Education believes an alternative option is to deliver in Brazil a course in analytical skills based on an already established programme at an overseas university through collaboration between an overseas institution and local colleges. This would consist of some courses taught by local college staff, and some courses taught by professors from the overseas university. Through this approach, the Minister believes that a larger number of students could be educated (compared with Option A) and that students are more likely to remain in Brazil once they have completed their studies. However, he does not believe that in the short term the level of teaching will be as high as under option A.
- Option C - Develop Courses within Brazil: The Minister of Education has identified an ambitious plan to create a Centre of Excellence in Analytical Methods at one of the colleges in Brazil. This Centre of Excellence would teach a bespoke course developed for students in Brazil and focusing on the industries and problems that are relevant to Brazil However, the Minister is already concerned that the decision of which college to choose has become a political challenge and that the cost of the project may be prohibitive. While funding for this project is available, the Minister of Education has lofty ambitions and does not wish to be part of a high-profile project that fails.
The Minister knows that the decision is challenging and that there are many different competing issues that must be managed. He also believes that the list of issues with the above options is not exhaustive and further thought on these issues must be given. He particularly is wary of the different stakeholders and the need to make a decision that captures the views of these different stakeholders. He currently believes that the main stakeholders are the government, industrial organisations, the local colleges and the students.
The Minister of Education believes that the coming ten years will be a pivotal time in the economic development of Brazil and that getting the right people with the right skills is imperative to that development. Without a workforce with strong analytical skills, he believes that external investment will be low and the development of Brazil companies will be stifled in the international market. The decision taken will receive coverage in the media and the Minister must be able to justify the decision, both now and in the future. It is important that the decision making process is transparent and logical.
Analyse the decision problem facing the Minister of Education using multiattribute value analysis supported by the V.I.S.A software
HINT: Each group member should role play different actors within this decision problem. For example, roles include the analyst, the facilitator and different stakeholders. This will give you the opportunity to mimic real-life and the experience of managing or participating in the decision analysis.
Your report on the analysis should:
- Discuss the roles you played and how you used the CAUSE framework or other approaches to support your problem structuring
- Discuss the development of a value tree for the analysis of alternatives
- Explain the process of scoring and weighting you have used (and include a table or graph of values)
- Discuss the synthesis of information for each stakeholder or scenario and compare results across stakeholders / scenarios
- Carry out appropriate sensitivity analyses and outline what you learned from these
- Recommend a course of action (this may be a decision, a need to consider further
alternatives, a need to design a more robust or better compromise alternative etc)
You should include carefully chosen visual displays to illustrate your report. (Suggested length 5-8 pages plus appendices of tables, charts, diagrams)