Our thirst for knowledge and new skills has remained consistent through this recession, as UK business schools report a healthy interest in their courses. What has changed is the content, and what directors choose to do with it

Mark Briffa, chief operating officer at Air Partner, an aircraft charter company, is pleased he took Cranfield School of Management's advanced development programme before the credit crunch struck. The recession has ravaged the air travel business worse than most.

But Briffa believes the course, which prepares senior managers for leadership roles, has helped him take wiser decisions in tough conditions. "The recession makes you sharper and reflect on what you learnt," he says. "The course gave me a broader view of how strategy can be applied to a business—and strategy helps in a recession."

Since the recession struck, leading business schools report an upswing in enrolment on MBA and other courses. About 10,000 students will graduate from accredited MBA courses this year, says Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs. And the number is growing despite the recession.

"There's been an increase in applications for the full-time MBA programme from British nationals and some are using redundancy pay-offs to fund their course," says Séan Rickard, director of the full-time MBA at Cranfield.

"The recession hasn't affected demand yet," confirms Sue Parr, head of professional development programmes at The Open University. "At the moment there is a demand from employers to get employees better equipped to cope with the future."

Adds Kai Peters, chief executive of Ashridge Business School: "In a recession, the demand for full-time MBA courses increases as candidates have, perhaps, been laid off or feel that sitting out a recession at a business school presents optimum timing—and that they will graduate into an upswing."

Peters says that there is also increased demand for some of Ashridge's part-time courses, such as its Masters in Coaching and Masters in Organisational Consulting. "These courses provide a skillset for people interested in self-employment or in a portfolio career," Peters says. He notes that business course content is focusing on issues such as doing more with less, lean operations and dealing with uncertainty. There is also a strong focus on coaching and behavioural issues—"are we in growth or contraction mode?—and the general business environment. "Thus, there is a significant change of emphasis within courses," he adds.

There is growing demand for specialised directors' qualifications, too. This year, more than 1,000 candidates will sit exams for the Institute of Directors' certificate or diploma in company direction or take the final stage towards becoming a chartered director.

"People want to bolster their CVs especially when they're looking for non-executive director positions," explains Ryan Ahern, learning and development director at the IoD. "More than that, this difficult time is when directors really want to make sure their organisations are running effectively."

In smaller companies, where directors need to be something of a jack-of-all-trades, it helps to gain some specialist qualifications and the easiest time to do that is when the business is quieter than in boom times. Ahern has noted that directors coming on courses are keen to acquire practical information. "They want to learn useful things they can apply straightaway."

Finance—especially issues such as raising capital—and strategy are high on the learning agenda. And with the unwelcome prospect of having to make redundancies, employment law is another issue more directors are wanting to learn about. "People are a lot more focused on finding the real meat that can help their business," adds Ahern.

There's also growing interest in MBAs, which feature entrepreneurship as an elective option, notes Purcell. Business schools with special strengths in this area include Warwick, Durham, Cranfield and Strathclyde, which has the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Many directors are also looking at the stresses and strains of steering family businesses through the recession. The University of Gloucestershire Business School runs a postgraduate course on family business management. Directors wanting to bone up on the money essentials with a financial management MBA have a wide choice including Cass Business School at City University, Manchester Business School and Edinburgh Business School.

But, above all, the issue which seems to make the difference when times are tough is leadership. The University of Exeter's highly regarded Centre for Leadership Studies offers an MA as well as MPhil or PhD in leadership studies. The Leadership Trust Foundation and Strathclyde University's Graduate School of Business offer a leadership skills MBA especially suited to the needs of directors.

Among Britain's business schools, most industry and management specialisms are now catered for. So the problem for many directors and managers is choosing which one to attend. Criteria to take into account are whether you are looking for a full-time or part-time course and whether you want the course to be residential or whether you intend to live at home while studying.

The Association of MBAs suggests that a business schools' reputation among its alumni is a good guide to its quality. The Association cautions against paying too much attention to the league tables of business schools which appear—they all use different methodologies. The key is whether the course offers what you are looking for as a director—and whether it has a strong practical edge with good links to business and industry.

Directors who can't commit to either a full or part-time MBA could consider any number of short courses or distance learning which are available in the market, both from business schools and commercial providers.

As they face an uncertain future, directors should certainly focus on sharpening their own skills but they shouldn't ignore those of their employees either. Many are investing in their staff, according to education providers.

"Although times are tough, businesses are continuing to train and use colleges for this training—hence Train to Gain and apprenticeships are now running ahead of target," says Andy Wilson, chair of the Association of Colleges' Skills Group and principal of Westminster Kingsway College.

Meanwhile, Mark Briffa now has time to reflect on what he learnt that's helped Air Partners weather the recession. He says: "It was partly how to value people—we've put together a learning and development department. Then how to benchmark ourselves in the market-place. And how we should get our research in place before taking decisions."

Directors thinking about some training now may be too late for it to have much impact in the current recession. But not the next.

Preparing for the next challenge

Each economic crisis and recession brings revelations about unethical if not unlawful business activities. From John Poulson in the 1970s to Michael Milken in the 1980s, and from Ken Lay in the 1990s to Bernard Madoff, it seems that each new decade brings novel ways of making money and new temptations to bend or break the rules. How can we encourage managers to think about the ethical and moral content and consequences of their actions?

In response to these concerns, a group of management educators and researchers from business schools will publish this month draft guidelines which they hope will prompt discussion and be used to review the activities of business students and practising managers. Hopefully, after consultation, agreed guidelines can be used in business schools from January 2010.

The focus has changed

People still place the same importance on business education despite the recession. No HR director worth his salt could go to the board and suggest cutting down on the training budget. But it does become a dichotomy between essentials and non-essentials and the focus has definitely changed. Once you get a group of directors in the classroom there are more questions and more discussion. Delegates have lost customers, they are seeing their margins under pressure and there is a huge amount of uncertainty.

Some of the frequent issues are survival, cashflow and banks withdrawing allowance of credit. Just a few years ago credit was in abundance, but now I get a lot more questions and discussion on how to maximise the potential of getting credit from your bank. In a couple of years, when the recession is hopefully behind us, there will be some other prevailing theme that will dominate the agenda. That is just the way it goes.