Fudan University will launch a training course for elite working females in Shanghai next month, adding to the emerging trend in education of successful female professionals.

Run by the training center of Fudan's management school, the part-time program will target female professionals who earn 500,000 yuan (US$60,241) or above each year or those working for companies with at least a 50-million-yuan annual turnover.

Applicants must have a college degree and be under 55, and senior managers between 30 and 40 are particularly welcome.

Trainees will be taught by prominent Fudan professors in culture courses including history and philosophy.

Scholars and professionals from home and abroad will be invited to give lectures on manners, management skills and social communication.

Career management and development sessions - including an executive summit, business forum and company visit - will also be included.

The nine-month program will cost up to 26,000 yuan.

"We will help the healthy development of female professionals, of whom important features are maturity and graceful manners," said Liang Linli, the program's director.

The management school plans to enroll around 40 students.

More than 200 women have flooded the inquiry line since the new course began admission on September 16.

The East China Normal University launched an executive training course for female chief executive officers in the city in June.

Zheng Guizhen, sociologist at Fudan's Gender Studies Institute, said the number of female-tailored training courses reflected society's increasing focus on highly paid female professionals.

"So long as the course isn't commercially oriented, it will have a positive influence on a female professional's personal development," Zheng said.

(Shanghai Daily October 22, 2004)