Learning any way you want it

By VIKKI BLAND

Rugby players from the Auckland Blues have undergone training of a different kind - a tailormade course in business management.

Top-level rugby players are often keen to look at small business opportunities, says Ant Strachan, the Blues' professional development manager, but lose interest if they find they don't have the necessary skills.

So he worked with theInstitute of Management (NZIM) to create a customised learning programme for them on business management. The institute runs more than 15 tailored courses a month.

Customised learning courses are about making sure every moment - and dollar- counts. An organisation works with a training provider to tailor a course to a specific company or industry goals.

The training provider runs the courses, which are co-operative and often more practical than academic, on the company's site. The organisation can control when and how courses are held, and their content.

Strachan learned "a hell of a lot" from his experience. "We worked with NZIM for about five weeks and pulled out key modules we thought would be helpful for the guys.

"We started with 11 guys and had two withdraw. One decided he had more pressing priorities and another found it a bit easy. Of the other nine, three found it hard going but stayed, and six passed the course."

He says that while he believes customised learning is valuable, he feels the training the Blues bought was not value for money. "NZIM did a great job facilitating, but we needed a course that was tailored for players at different education levels.

"Ideally, we need to tailor the content to one or two people, but we had ... to keep costs down."

Differing education levels aren't a problem for Fisher & Paykel Appliances.

"The employees we place have varying education levels, but all show high learning potential," says Myrene McLeod, performance improvement manager.

Working with the University of Auckland, "we deliberately choose senior people and put them under pressure because we want them to perform and extend themselves".

McLeod says the company knew its goals from the outset. "The nature of our business is becoming a lot more global, and changing fast.

"We need a 'next generation' group trained to move outside their functional areas of expertise to make decisions based on whole systems within the company."

She says the company chose Auckland University as a training partner because it was prepared to listen rather than dictate.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances has run two customised courses in the past two years, with 16 people in each. But more work is needed to get the most from the investment.

"We've seen some of the gains we expected to in the short term ... But how do we nurture that and how do we maximise the benefit we are getting?" asks McLeod. "We're looking at ways to keep this core group stimulated and not let their new skills be frittered away."

Philippa Reed, executive director of executive programmes for the University of Auckland's Business School, says customised learning is a growing international trend.

"Organisations need to get real value out of their training dollar and the investment they are making in their people."

Manukau Institute of Technology has had tailormade frontline management training since 1997.

"It's really grown from that time," says business development adviser Jane Tongatule. "We get a lot of interest from companies in manufacturing, production and engineering services."

Law firm Bell Gully is another organisation that wants to keep learning skills sharp.

Chief executive Maggie Callicrate says Bell Gully developed a customised leadership programme with the University of Auckland.

The university provided guidance through business consultants, and began with an organisational analysis specific to Bell Gully and its business goals.

Five modules were then designed to focus on the law firm's priorities.

Callicrate says the programme was designed to help leaders understand and develop the strategic role they could play.

"We are a successful firm so we were not intending to throw everything out and start again.

"We wanted to enhance the good things and consider ways to improve the things that were not so good."

She says company leaders responded well to the chance to think outside their normal legal focus.

New Zealand Steel's Rob Seaborne, manager of HR and external affairs, says the company sought to boost its balance sheet by improving employee skills.

"We measured the return on investment by the number of successful appointees to internal supervisory roles.

"The participants appreciated the company assistance and were provided with external perspective and best practice via case studies," says Seaborne.

Motor industry giant Nissan New Zealand worked with NZIM to tailor a programme, entitled Nissan Diploma In After-sales Management, for line managers in its dealer network.

Mike Perez, customer services manager for Nissan, says the course allowed Nissan to deal with specific issues. "We were able to customise modules to a level we thought appropriate," he says.

The result was improved dealership performance in personnel handling, budgeting, forecasting, implementing business and action plans, and vision.

"Our guys were good technicians turned into performance managers and service managers, but they had no or little formal management training," he says. "The facilitators used motor industry analogies to teach."