Business Schools

McDonald's, the fast food chain, is introducing its own degree course in business management for its restaurant managers in the UK. The foundation degree, which will be accredited by Manchester Metropolitan University, marks the fast-food company's latest move into education.It will be taught by a combination of classroom study, e-learning and training in the workplace. People can train and work at the same time.

"People no longer want to choose between jobs and education. They should not be parallel universes," says Senior vice-president David Fairhurst. He says this isn't a philanthropic gesture, as improved skills in the workforce lead to better sales.

The department store Harrods set up a degree course for its staff, in conjunction with Anglia Ruskin University.

Microsoft has its own qualifications which were awarded to about 17,500 people in the UK last year. In the United States it was announced that North Carolina will be the first state in which all maintained secondary schools will use a Microsoft educational programme, which leads to Microsoft qualifications.

Companies seek to imprint in the minds of the recipients of education the idea that the profit motive is both essential and intrinsic to increased productivity; and the belief that free-for-all competition at the market place is the only way to realise the overall interest of society. The ability to regurgitate such ideas in examinations qualifies one to be a graduate of business management and enhances the chances of an individual to aspire to lucrative promotion. It prepares the minds of the students to accept the dominance of capital over labour in the process both of production and distribution.