NVQ in Management Supporting Workshops
Our NVQs in Team Leading and Management can be delivered as a group programme, with supporting workshops to complement the NVQ and develop teams and individuals.
Below is a suggested format for an NVQ 5 in Management programme, aimed at strategic managers.
Suggested format of the programme
- Programme duration: 12 months
- One workshop each month, depending on the number of workshops required
- Choice of workshop subjects to be taken from those set out below
- One NVQ assessment day per month with each candidate having a scheduled time to meet with the Assessor for up to 1½ hours
- Assessment interview at the end of the programme
- The aim is to complete one unit per month
Choice of supporting workshops
Workshops to support the mandatory units
Workshop 5.1 Providing Leadership for your organisation
Key focus: Providing direction to people in the organisation and enabling, inspiring, motivating and supporting them to achieve what the organisation has set out to do.
Applying different styles of leadership appropriate to different people and situations.
- The differences between management and leadership
- Organisational vision and values
- Methods and techniques for communicating with people
- Identifying and overcoming conflicts within the organisation
- Theories, models and styles of leadership
- The effects of different leadership styles
- Methods and techniques for motivating, rewarding, influencing and persuading
- Empowering people effectively
- Making use of feedback on your leadership performance
- Creating a culture of creativity and innovation
- Recognising and developing the leadership capability of others
Workshop 5.2 Encouraging innovation in your organisation
Key focus: Encouraging and supporting the identification and practical implementation of ideas from within the organisation.
Looking beyond the organisation for opportunities to identify and develop ideas.
Improving how the organisation works; improvements to existing practices, procedures, systems, ways of working across the organisation.
- The benefits of innovation
- The difference between creativity and innovation
- Developing an organisational strategy for innovation
- Motivating and encouraging others to generate, develop and share ideas
- The importance of communication in the creative process
- Obstacles to innovation
- The key stages of the creative process
- The key stages of the innovation process
- Providing constructive feedback on ideas to teams and individuals
- Evaluating business cases and plans for the implementation of ideas
Workshop 5.3 Ensuring an effective organisational approach to health and safety
Key focus: Leading the approach to health and safety in your organisation.
Contributing to the well-being and productivity of others. Minimising the risk of injury and ill-health to others. Legislative requirements.
- Legislative framework
- Responsibilities of Managers, Staff, Others
- Developing an effective health and safety policy statement
- Sources of specialist expertise in relation to health and safety
- Developing a culture of putting 'health and safety' first
- Ensuring health and safety informs overall strategy, planning and decision-making
- Systems for monitoring, measuring and reporting on health and safety performance
Workshop 5.4 Organisational performance and continuous improvement
Key focus: Continuous improvement of performance. Identifying and implementing changes to add value.
- The principles supporting organisational improvement
- Benchmarking performance of the organisation against others
- The value of a customer focused culture
- Developing a culture that continually improves and how to involve others in achieving this
- Establishing the causes and effects of problems and changes
- Ways of measuring the effect of improvements
Choice of supporting workshops
Workshops to support the optional units
Workshop 5.5 Managing self and personal skills
Key focus: Developing personal networks to support current and future work. The principles of networking. Personal and professional development.
Could include:
- Time management and delegation
- Assertiveness
- Managing stress
- Presentation skills
- Introduction to NLP
- Considering your values and career and personal goals
- Setting objectives which are SMART
- The principles which underpin professional development
- What an effective development plan should contain
- Learning styles
- Effective networking
Workshop 5.6 Managing in a strategic business context
Key focus: Providing the organisation with a clear sense of direction and long-term plans. Focusing on the future, providing a clear vision and the route to get there. Having a clear and up-to-date picture of the environment in which the organisation operates. Producing information which could be used for planning and operational purposes. Putting a strategic business plan into action. The responsible organisation; the law, ethical frameworks.
- The principles of strategic management and business planning
- What a strategic business plan should cover
- Identifying risks in relation to the achievement of objectives
- Developing strategic objectives which are SMART
- Monitoring and evaluating performance against the strategic business plan
- Analysing the internal and external business environment
- Stakeholder analysis
- An ethical and value-based approach to governance
- Relevant legal requirements governing the running of organisations
- Current and emerging social attitudes to management and leadership practice
Workshop 5.7 Organisational culture
Key focus: Organisational culture; assumptions and values about business, working life and relationships. How values influence the way people behave. The link between culture, vision and strategy.
- The concept of culture
- Definitions of organisational culture
- Different types of organisational culture
- The cultural web
- Internal and external factors that influence organisational culture
- The relationship between organisational culture, strategy and performance
- The principles and methods of managing culture change within organisations
Workshop 5.8 Equality and diversity
Key focus: Promoting equality of opportunity and diversity. Complying with equality legislation and any codes of practice. Ensuring an equality and diversity policy and action plan exist. Monitoring and reviewing progress.
- Definitions of diversity
- Different forms which discrimination and harassment might take
- The business case for ensuring equality of opportunity and promoting diversity
- The probable effects of not promoting equality of opportunity and diversity
- Responsibilities and liabilities under equality legislation
- Developing an effective equality and diversity policy
- Action planning for the promotion of equality and diversity
- Benchmarking to identify good practice
- Sources of specialist expertise in relation to equality and diversity
Workshop 5.9 Managing change
Key focus: 'Change', in its various forms. The driving forces for change. Managing and leading change. Selling the vision of change. Planning and implementing change. Supporting others through change.
- Models and methods for leading organisational change, and their strengths and weaknesses
- The relationship between transformational and transactional change
- Theory and application of the change/performance curve
- Principles and application of risk assessment
- Techniques for solving problems and how to apply them
- Stakeholder expectations and how they influence the change process
- Effective planning techniques
- The importance of contingency planning and how to do so effectively
- Theory and understanding of teams, including an understanding of team-building technique
Workshop 5.10 Dealing with difficult people/managing conflict
Key focus: Developing productive working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. Roles, responsibilities, interests and concerns of colleagues and stakeholders. Monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of working relationships.
- Difficult situations that present in the workplace
- How conflict arises
- Communication and process techniques to manage conflict
- Applying best practice to managing conflict
Workshop 5.11 Practical employment law
Key focus: Working within the law. The basics of employment law. The effects of not complying.
- The risks and costs of not complying
- The contract of employment
- Discipline and grievance
- Dismissal
- Flexible working
- Maternity/paternity
- Discrimination at work
Workshop 5.12 Managing learning for others
Key focus: Identifying learning needs and identifying opportunities to address these needs. Encouraging colleagues to take responsibility for their own learning. Providing an ‘environment’ in which learning is valued.
- The benefits of learning for individuals and organisations
- The learning organisation
- Providing constructive feedback
- How to identify learning needs
- Prioritising learning
- The range of different learning
- Different types of learning activities, their advantages and disadvantages
- The development plan and what it should contain
- Setting learning objectives which are SMART
- Evaluating whether a learning activity has achieved the desired learning objectives
Workshop 5.13 Finance for non-financial managers
Key focus: The balance sheet. Different types of costs. Managing a budget. Cash flow.
- The balance sheet barrier; Money in and Money out;
- Where does it come from? Where has it gone to?
- The cash merry-go-round; The financial snap shot, the financial history book; The financial crystal ball
- Counting the cost; The nature of costs;
- Direct costs v Overheads; Sharing the costs;
- Covering your costs; Setting the price
- Balancing your budget; Approaches to budgeting;
- The budget negotiations; Fixed or flexible budgets; Variances-scoring the differences
- Watching the pennies; The cash question;
- The cash flow forecast; Turning over your stock;
- Chasing your debtors; Paying your suppliers;
- The cash flow cycle
Workshop 5.14 Introduction to project management
Key focus: Defining a project. The life cycle of a project. Best practice project management.
- What is a project?
- The role of the Project Manager
- The project life cycle
- Project definition phase
- Project planning phase
- Project planning tools
- Tracking and change control
- Project implementation phase
- Project review and evaluation phase
Workshop 5.15 Introduction to marketing concepts
Key focus: Providing a framework for marketing products or services. Defining the organisation’s market and customers. Putting customers first.
- Different customer groups and their needs
- Setting marketing aims and targets
- Principles and techniques for branding
- Principles which underpin pricing strategies
- Risks associated with marketing and selling approaches
- Customers and the market – sources of information
- Sources of information on competitors
- Gaining customer feedback
- The legislative and ethical restrictions relating to the management of information
- The principles of competitive advantage
- Market segmentation and why this is important
- The principles of effective customer service
- The factors that make customers satisfied
- Measuring the level of customer service
- Best practice in customer service