Ever since the real estate market started to formulate quality standards for management services, the question of training staff has become particularly critical in this sphere. At the moment nearly all companies working in real estate management lack qualified specialists. How can this hunger for personnel be satiated? Currently, it is more often than not managers who are educating the ‘next generation’ themselves, as they understand that practical experience is the key to learning, and that this can only be gained by actually running properties. Nevertheless, some educational establishments and public organizations are responding to the market situation and offering their own professional programs. We will examine the most wellknown of these in this survey.

CPM Property Management

In 1995 the Russian Guild of Realtors joined forces with the National Center for the Education of Realtors and the Real Estate Management Institute USA IREM to hold courses on real estate management and to award those passing the course with the qualification Certified Property Manager (CPM). This qualification gives the CPM the right to become a member of the IREM and the legal right to work in the international real estate market. The name of every CPM is included in the annual global directory of Certified Property Managers.

The course, according to its organizers, is aimed both at specialists already working in the real estate market and those just beginning their real estate management activities. The Russian and American teachers introduce their pupils to systems recommended for property management in Russia and worldwide. At the moment the RGR and IREM are renewing their programs for the Property Management course. Lectures are given by both Russian and American teachers.

The course consists of three stages. The first stage includes the course: Managing an Office Building, and lectures on the theme Effective Ways of Increasing Owners’ Profit, Marketing (demography, rent income analysis, leasing strategy), Management and Planning Strategy, Drawing up Budgets and Financial Reports. Students from the first stage should also attend the courses Commercial Real Estate Financing and Valuation as well as Cash Flow Analysis: Practical Application.

The second stage features the course Property Management Plans: The IREM Model.

The third stage is to write and present a business plan. When the students have passed their exams (business plan / colloquium), they receive a certificate demonstrating that they have become Certified Property Managers.

The first two stages are held over 35 days each, from 10.00 to 17.00, and the third requires independent work on the business plan. The course costs as follows: first and second stages – 18500 rubles for members of the Russian Guild of Realtors and 20000 rub. for nonmembers; the third stage – the review of the business plan costs 6000 rubles for everyone, and the colloquium 21000 rubles.

MBA (Master of Business Administration) in Property Management

The MBA program in Property Management is offered at the School of Land Market Economics at the Academy of National Economics with the support of the Russian Federal Government. This course started in 2003.

The MBA program was developed by specialists from the Academy of National Economics alongside the Ministry of Property and the Federal Land Cadaster Service. The teaching staff includes practicing real estate specialists as well as specialized real estate legal project designers.

The course’s target audience, according to its founders, is managers from landuse organizations, realtors and development firms, as well as investment firms, insurance companies, and credit institutions.

The program covers questions about real estate acquisition strategy and effective property management processes. The themes covered include: Global Experience for the Development of the Real Estate Market, The Legal Basis for Forming Land/Property Complexes, The Basics of Economic Theory, The Legal Regulation of Business Activities, Accountants’ Reports in a Management System, Management Psychology, Marketing, Strategic Real Estate Management, Investment Management, Attracting Investment to a Development Project, Risk Management in Project Management, etc. “One of the main characteristics of this program is that it is directed at actual practice – during the learning process a lot of emphasis is put on the development of actual ways of solving the most important property management problems. Students develop projects at the end of their course based on their own firms in the form of business plans, investment projects, and concepts for creating and managing land/property complexes. Lessons use active learning such as business games and the analysis of actual situations,” explained the program’s director, Elena Skosyrskykh.

After completing their studies and defending their course work students receive a state diploma for supplementary (Higher) education and a Master of Business Administration in Property Management.

The Property Management Course from the Arsenal Management School

Arsenal Management School, a teaching establishment in Moscow specializing in preparing specialists for the real estate market, decided to create a new program – Property Management. The idea, according to the course’s founders, was suggested by Arsenal’s partners – M+W Zander, which, along with Ermak, was involved in the development of the new program. The business course prepares specialists for the real estate market, that is, for development and management companies. One of the special features of the program is the chance to be set up in a job and the fact that it includes a practical element (training and practical work in a property). The teaching is provided by experts with experience in the relevant spheres of activity. The teaching staff includes specialists from Colliers International. M + W Zander, Cushman & Wakefield Stiles & Riabokobylko, Centrum Group, Forum Properties, Ermak, Gaba Estate, MIEL and others.

The course includes the following theoretical modules: A Survey of the Real Estate Market, Development, The Basics of Managing Properties, Legal Basics, Managing Finances, Personnel Management, and Reconstruction and Maintenance of Real Estate. What’s more, the course also includes the special sections on Valuing Real Estate and Insuring Real Estate. The practical part of the course is made up of thematic training modules: Room to Grow (the integrated development of people’s business skills), How to Behave in Stressful Situations, Stress Management, Leadership Skills, Practical Methods for Managerial Work with Partners and Clients. When the students have passed the final exam, they receive a certificate from the Arsenal Management School

The course lasts in total 220 hours, spread over 8 weeks. Lessons are scheduled between 18.00 and 21.00 and 10.00 to 20.00 on training days.

The cost of the course for both private persons and employees sent by companies for training is 1500 standard units (1 standard unit equals 30 rubles).

School for Professional Development (Russian Council of Shopping Centers)

This is a theoretical and practical course held every year by the Russian Council of Shopping Centers, which specializes in the specifics of managing retail real estate. From 2006 onwards it will be held twice a year (spring and autumn).

The course lasts five days: 80% of the time is taken up by lectures (60 academic hours), and 20% by visits to shopping centers, and discussion between participants.

Teachers are experts drawn from Russian and foreign companies working in the shopping center market. The course’s target audience is representatives from companies working or planning to work in the retail real estate industry – investors, developers, managers, retailers and consultants. The course contains the following thematic modules:
Shopping center project market research and shopping center brand.

• Plan and methods for shopping center trade concept development.
• The nuances of shopping center projecting.
• Property business plan creation.
• Shopping center tenant policy.
• Managing your company: structure, standards and functions.
• Basic and new marketing tools for a shopping center promotion.
• Retail real estate redevelopment.
• Organizing a security service in a shopping center.
• Nuances of a shopping center service and exploitation.

The School for Professional Development includes a technical tour around shopping centers in Moscow, in which students will have a chance to meet real estate managers. Participants will also have the chance to attend a number of highlyspecialized seminars.

Owing to the school’s format the number of participants in a group is limited to 60. The cost of participating is 1500 Euro, and 1300 Euro for members of the Russian Council of Shopping Centers (not including VAT).

Management of Real Estate Properties (Real Estate Institute, St. Petersburg)

This program provides basic training for professional real estate managers. The teachers are mostly experts working in real estate. The students are mostly property owners trying to master management issues, developers and managers of companies connected to the St. Petersburg real estate market. The course gives the audience the chance to familiarize themselves with the economic and legal content of concepts such as ‘real estate’, ‘immovables’, and ‘fixed property’. Students study issues about legal regulations in the field of property management, contractual relations in this sector, taxes, insurance and so on. What’s, there is a close focus on the details of residential property management and on factors which influence the value of properties, such as economic interests, sources and mechanisms for financing properties, basic approaches to property valuation, and the departments and methods used in the government’s regulation of the real estate market.

The course, which consists of two modules, takes place three times a year. Each module lasts nearly a month. The first covers questions about the legal basis and theoretical issues, while the second is more practical and includes elements devoted to solving financial and economic problems. If a student completes one module, they receive a certificate showing they have taken the program. If a student passes exams in two modules than they receive the institute’s attestation certificate for passing the whole course, as well as the ordinary certificate.

Only evening classes are provided: lessons run from 18.00 to 21.00 four times a week. The first module costs 7500 rubles, the second 8000 rubles.

Conclusion

We have tried to give you an idea of the bestknown education programs in the management field. Naturally, they cannot immediately solve the problem of the lack of staff in the management market. Be that as it may, each of the above programs is working to develop the market and is making it possible for the to provide highquality training services for property management.