MRIA Partners With McGill University For Online CMRP Course Development

The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association is pleased to announce that it has partnered with McGill University’s Department of Continuing Education, Career and Management Studies for the development of online Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP) core courses.

Under a contract recently signed by the two organizations, McGill, an internationally recognized educational institution and one of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, will design and deliver 10 customized learning modules for the MRIA’s CMRP core curriculum.

“This is a new era for MRIA; we are leading the way in the development and delivery of marketing research training and will continue to use any and all tools to help increase the number of well-trained and educated researchers,” said Jeannette Bellerose, CMRP, Dean of MRIA’s Institute for Professional Development.

“These will be high quality, high content online courses which will create new avenues of opportunity for MRIA members who want to pursue the CMRP designation,” said Rick Hobbs, CMRP, MRIA’s Education Portfolio Chair.

“McGill looks forward to providing MRIA and its members with a dynamic and rewarding learning solution,” said Dr. Carmen Sicilia, Director of the university’s Department of Continuing Education, Career & Management Studies.

"The first three online courses 201-Questionnaire Design, 202-Qualitative Marketing Research and 203-Marketing Research Design: An Applied Course will be developed over the summer and available to members in September of this year", said Fania Borok, MRIA’s Manager, Professional Development and Certification. The other CMRP core courses will be developed in two or three instalments and added to the Association’s online learning platform over the course of 2011.

Career attraction, education and professional development is the first-ranked strategic goal in MRIA’s Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2011.

“Today’s marketing and survey research professionals face increasing time constraints and competition for their time. Education and professional development has to be accessible anytime, anywhere. The way to do that is by offering courses and seminars online, on demand. Whilst our Association has been offering online webinars for some time, we are now forging ahead to meet the goal of delivering online all of the courses that are core to our Association’s professional designation,” said MRIA President Ed Gibson.

McGill University’s submission in response to MRIA’s Request For Proposals For Course Content Development was selected by a Professional Development and Certification Portfolio evaluation committee, after thorough due diligence.

Jeannette Bellerose, CMRP Dean, MRIA Institute for Professional Development	Ric Hobbs, CMRP Chair, Professional Development & Certification Portfolio	Fania Borok Manager, Professional Development & Certification