John Quinan:

"Combining flexibility with a disciplined framework is what the customers want."

The secret of success seems to be to provide as much flexibility as possible within a clearly organised and disciplined framework.

John comments: "The programme comprises three main elements: skills development workshops, resource-based learning and work-based learning. We find having a very clear structure with scheduled weekly attendance for workshops, seminars or tutorials gives people the framework they want and provides a bit of backbone for the occasions when self-discipline and self-direction might not be all that robust. We really don't have much of a problem with non-completion."

"Achieving a Diploma and NVQ 4 at the same time is quite challenging and requires a lot of commitment. It is up to us to make the process as streamlined and transparent as possible."

"We publish the programme of skills development workshops for two years ahead so that anybody starting the programme knows what will be available when for the whole of their programme and can do their action planning with confidence. Some local shift patterns are very complicated to the outsider and certainly wouldn't fit in with regular weekly attendance at the same time every week.

However, people often know what shifts they are going to be working up to two years ahead so we, in turn, have to be similarly organised."

"Having said that, we make the programme as flexible as we can. We run every skills development workshop twice within a four week period at a different time of day and, if you happen to miss both of them, with rolling programmes starting in September, January and April/May, you can pick up the workshop on the next programme if necessary."

"Well over 50% of candidates on our Diploma/NVQ 4 programme are promoted whilst they are still studying or change jobs to a more senior post. That's great for them and for us but it can play havoc with study plans! We now see this as a factor to be taken into account rather than a problem and we build in an allowance for three months time out during the course of the study programme. Sometimes people need it to balance their jobs, private lives and study but quite a number know that they can take some time out to get on top of a new job and then pick up their development programme again when they are ready."

"It all adds to the candidates' sense of ownership of their own learning and the responsibility for completion is part of it."

Following an induction period, the programme is organised in four semester-long sections, each address-ing a key skill area. Within that semester, candidates attend monthly skills development workshops and work individually on the relevant Universal Manager dossiers. There will also be occasional seminars and other events they can include in their study programme too. Alongside this, they meet their tutor regularly to work on a rolling development plan for the key skills they are currently working on. John commented "We find the profiling at the beginning of each of the Universal Manager dossiers is useful for this."

"When resulting action plans are discussed with their line managers is often the point that the organisation really gets involved. The line manager suddenly sees a business angle to what the candidate is planning to do and - you're in business!"

"The HR manager in one of our client companies said recently that it was like having 'eight professional business consultants working for us - and we don't have to pay them £600 a day!'"

"The action plan results in a work-based activity report. The form that is to take is negotiated between the candidate, line manager and tutor. It may be a report, an implementation plan - it all depends on what's best in the individual circumstances."

They also complete a series of work-based development projects, assignments designed to extend and demonstrate knowledge, deliver a useful outcome at work and demonstrate the relevant managerial competencies.

John takes up the story: "That is the core programme. We find the Universal Manager dossiers up-to-date and relevant and I was satisfied with the mapping available on the Universal Manager web site on to Diploma and the management standards at Level 4. Our candidates like them and are particularly glad of the web site references and the suggestions for further reading."

"We would vary the programme on a case-by-case basis if necessary and I do find that we need to vary which project management dossier we use depending on the background of the candidate. Some candidates from the public sector are starting project management from such a different base from, say, manufacturing industry, that they get on better with the softer skills treatment of 'Delivering Successful Projects'. They find some of the techniques discussed in 'Planning and Controlling Projects' unfamiliar, given the way they work, and conceptually difficult. Those from a manufacturing background tend to be much happier with it. Ideally one would include both but circumstances rarely are ideal, are they?"

"We match the skills development workshops to the dossiers as closely as we can. For instance, they are an opportunity for candidates to work together on some of the bigger work-based activities in the dossiers. In a workshop they can tackle these activities on a 'low-risk basis' where they might find some of them a bit threatening at work (or are worried their managers might find them a bit threatening!). In the workshops they can give them a dry run and decide whether they really want to include any particular activity in their work-based development."

Reproduced from Progress, Autumn 2001