REPRODUCED FROM Insider magazine march 2006
So Much More in Your Education Store
For those who used to dread the annual "team-building" weekend, the dramatic expansion of management education in recent years will come as a relief.
Getting managers to work out how best to get their staff and several unwieldy logs across a rushing stream was once regarded by some as the ultimate test in developing leadership skills. This still has its devotees, but managers are now more likely to be found in an evening class studying for a post-graduate qualification, or receiving personal one-to-one coaching to enhance their skills.
According to Ron Livingstone, Associate Dean at Caledonian Business School, the huge growth in management education and training means more choice for employers. Individuals are also now far more discerning.
"There is much greater focus on getting value from the time and money invested in a particular course and the reputation of the provider is increasingly a major factor," he says.
"Employers want education to tie in much more closely with the development needs of their business than before and individuals are looking for specific qualifications which will develop their career rather than just a few letters after their name."
Livingstone argues that the presures of modern business mean that businesses also expect their staff to invest more of their own time than before.
"In the past, many managers could come away on day or block-release courses, but that has changed. There is now more of an expectation that some training will be in the twilight hours after work or through distance learning."
Continuous training and development throughout a career is rapidly becoming the norm.
As well as growth in supply and demand, the definition of what constitutes management education and development has also widened in the past decade.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, it now encompasses everything from formal education courses ranging from NVQs to MBAs, through to coaching and mentoring and even secondments.
For companies and individuals looking to enhance the skills of their managers, there is a vast range of courses and providers on offer.
The growth in management education within higher education, in particular, has been startling. Thirty years ago there were just two business schools in the UK, but Scotland alone now boasts 11. Between them they offer 400-plus courses, from the MBA, to programmes in entrepreneurship and industry-specific courses.
While the MBA continues to be regarded as a core qualification, it has increasingly become a standard one for ambitious managers rather than the preserve of the few. Demand for more specialist qualifications has seen the launch of more sector or client-specific programmes.
Several Scottish Business Schools have developed reputations for expertise in particualr fields and work closely with industry on developing courses. University of Aberdeen Business School, for example, has established MBA and MSc programmes focusing on property in conjunction with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The University of Edinburgh Management School recently won the Scottish Financial Enterprise Innovators award for the success of the MSc in Finance and Investment it launched 18 months ago.
"We are now working far more closely on tailored products and solutions for companies," says Simon Earp, the school's director. "Developing client-specific programmes enables you to tighten up on specific tangible benefits to businesses."
The number of MSc programmes has increased significantly and across Scotland there are now more than 40 courses aimed at managers ranging from European business to manufacturing.
Bespoke courses have also been created for the Scottish market. Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire has developed an Emerging Executives programme, following the success of the MSc Corporate Leadership programme it launched several years ago in conjunction with Napier Business School.
The year-long course has seen middle managers from companies including Robert Wiseman and NVT Computing taking part.
"The idea for the course originally came from the executives who had taken part in the MSc programme," says Lynne Wilkinson, project director for the programme. "They were going back to their companies and finding that the people next in line weren't thinking in the same way, so they wanted a programme which would equip their leaders of the future with the same skills they had learned."
Graeme Muir, technical director at Belshill-based NVT, says the course gave him new insights into how to approach management issues.
"Whether you're a 20-person or a 20,000-person business, it all comes down to trying to get the best out of people both for the company and the people themselves. The old-school management style was to think that the harder you whip staff, the harder they will work, but managers now need to understand what motivates their staff to get the best out of them."
Professional bodies also run a growing range of management education courses specifically aimed at the needs of their members.
The Chartered Management Institute stages programmes across Scotland ranging from assertiveness training to interpersonal skills development.
The IoD's Scottish Director Development Centre also offers a range of professional qualifications, including the fairly new Chartered Director programme. Made up of seven courses and typically taking up to 18 months to complete, the programme is aimed at very senior management in larger SMEs.
Celia Westin, its programme manager, says the make-up of the intake for the programme meant the qualification itself was only part of the benefit for directors.
"It is quite lonely at the top, so getting time to interact and network with fellow directors has been an important factor for those who have taken part so far," she says.
There is an alumni club for the 25 Scottish Directors who have now completed the programme.
"Our primary role is to support our members, so the involvement doesn't end when the programme is completed," she adds.
Scotland also has a strong, independent, management education and training sector. Although the courses provided largely lack formal qualifications or accreditation, the fact that many of the trainers involved have significant private sector experience within the industry they are targeting means they are a valuable part of the education portfolio.
Recent years have seen coaching - one-to-one work to improve personal performance and skills - become the fastest-growing area for the private sector.
"There is a general trend for directors and executives to invest more in themselves as well as in their staff, and coaching is increasingly popular at that level, " says Willie Maltman, of Edinburgh-based training and HR Consultancy Eglinton.
"Coaching tends to be an ongoing long- term relationship, but it can also be provided as a one-off to prepare for a presentation to a board, for example."
Drew Thomson turned to coaching to help improve the way he and his fellow directors ran the family-owned Glasgow pub and property development business, Amascot.
"We spent all our time working in the business and didn't have the opportunity to step back and see how to do things better," he says. "We had no systems in place that allowed us to grow the business and adopt more of a strategic role."
"By understanding how we each tick, we have reallocated tasks and roles in a way that works best. That has increased productivity and produced better financial results."
Meeting his coach once a week represents a significant investment in time and money, but Thomson believes it has been justified.
"Giving up time to do formal education or training to improve the way the business is run would be difficult in a company of our size, but coaching has dealt directly with our issues."
Article written by Perry Gourley who is a freelance business journalist.
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