NIU will offer 15 different courses in business management which will be taught for local businessmen and others interested in enhancing their management skills.

Steve Johnson, coordinator of NIU continuing professional education, said “Strategies for the ‘90s” is “a series of half-day programs on a Saturday” that are offered at a reasonable price for local businessmen.

The courses will be taught at NIU April 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The cost of each course is $59 for NIU employees and $69 for others.

Johnson said he expects several managers to attend. He said most people will come from the Rockford-St. Charles-DeKalb area.

Dan Lemanski, an NIU management instructor who will be teaching a course, said, “I think it can be done once over lightly on a Saturday.”

He said each class is an intensive four-hour course with lecture and group participation.

Lemanski said teaching these courses is enjoyable and the feedback from participants is very positive.

The courses are ways of planning for change, said Carl Heinisch, senior vice president at First of America Bank in DeKalb. “The most permanent thing in life is change,” he said.

Heinisch said past weekend programs have helped his staff greatly with organizing their departmental plans.

Courses like these help considerably with employee self-evaluation and group evaluation of the organization, Heinisch said.

Johnson said although all 15 courses are important, the three classes that will probably draw the most participants are success skills for supervisors, the selling program and stress management.

Managing stress is very high on many managers’ agendas, Johnson said.

Workplace supervisors have said courses like these have helped them become better managers in their daily work, Johnson said, adding sales people want to hear new ways of improving their skills.