I’m not a manager yet, should I wait before starting an accredited management and leadership course?
The Level 3 CMI qualifications are actually aimed at people who are aspiring managers, as opposed to those already in management roles – so it is perfect for those developing towards a management role. It might be that you’re a rising star within your organisation, you may be a team leader or supervisor at the moment and looking for the next step, or indeed be working towards one of those positions as a team leader or a supervisor. Ideally, we would suggest that actually people do the qualification before, or as soon as they take that promotion. It gives them the best possible chance of being the best manager that they can be for themselves, for their team and the organisation. As we always say, management is not something that comes easily, people need support and development to be good managers. So the sooner you can do that, the sooner you can fulfil the demands of the role.
This is a question we get asked a lot, and we completely understand why. Delegates on our courses are often worried as they haven’t done any kind of studying since at school or college which, in some cases, may be several decades ago.
Some of our courses do have an element of formal assessment, for example our CMI accredited courses. For those who are worried that they’re not going to be able to do the assignments that are required, our answer is always the same: The assessment is very different from the essays or assignments that you may have completed at school or college and the CMI have a great online learning hub full of useful resources for you to use. In addition, you will have the full support of our tutor team. We’ve helped hundreds of students over the years to complete their assignments. We’re more than happy to read drafts of assignments or parts of assignments because quite often, once somebody has drafted part of an assignment and got the thumbs up from the tutors, that gives them the confidence to think actually, yes, I can do this.
In summary, do not put off your development due to nerves, we are here to support you reach your potential.
Of course, understanding theory is incredibly important but we truly believe that to become skilful, it’s important to ensure that once you have acquired some knowledge and understanding of theory during the initial stages of learning, that you then spend time practicing how to apply it. This is why we ensure all our courses are full of practical tools and transferable processes and provide lots of highly interactive activities to allow you to practice applying the skills and knowledge you have gained.
The cost of management training is influenced by a variety of factors, and it’s important to carefully consider each one when choosing a course that fits your budget and needs. Factors include:
- The skills, experience and reputation of the trainers used.
- The format of the course – virtual / distance delivery is sometimes offered at a lower price due to the reduced overhead costs, with recorded sessions and online material able to be used repeatedly.
- The length of the course – longer training courses generally cost more than shorter ones, as they involve more material and time investment from the trainer and the trainee.
- The level of customisation – if your training course is bespoke to your company, there is likely to be additional costs to take account of the time needed to design the course.
- Any additional materials and resources required – some training courses include additional materials and resources such as textbooks, workbooks, and access to online learning platforms. These resources can add to the overall cost of training.
At Gateway, our team of globally experienced, award winning experts, bring theory to life in all our courses, developing relevant and transferable knowledge and skills in your managers and leaders.
Our trainers are experts in their fields, with vast experience of designing effective management and leadership training. They are known for their work in continually developing knowledge and understanding in their fields, including developing recognised models and frameworks in leadership and coaching.
Our training delivers measurable impact for individuals and organisations and your financial investment starts from as little as £950 +VAT for a half day training session with your team.
When it comes to the time commitment needed for CMI courses, it does vary on the level that you’re choosing. If you are considering choosing to complete one of our Level 3 courses, we always say that all the content that you need to complete the assignments is covered within the workshop. So there’s no expectation or indeed requirement to go and do a lot of extra reading or studying around the topics. Of course, we’d always recommend this to expand your learning and add to what you’ve already learned within the workshops, but the only expectation is that you put that learning into practice in your role as a as a team leader, or as a manager. So for example, if you’re learning in one of the modules around giving feedback, that you actually go away and put that into practice and give feedback to a team member or colleague, to use those skills. So at Level 3 in terms of commitment, we suggest it’s probably one or two hours a week in addition to the 6 half day workshops. Obviously, it varies between people, but there are only two assignments to complete within the six month period. We say that if you keep on top of it and do a little bit of work after each workshop, then it’s not a huge time commitment outside of that.
For a Level Five qualification, there is a higher requirement and expectation as to the amount of work that goes on in between workshops, and sessions with your tutor. We obviously provide guidance around this and links to useful resources, but there is also an expectation that you do additional research and reading around the subject. We suggest that you spend at least three to four hours per week on additional study for a Level 5 qualification. If your employer is funding the course, some of this may be allowed to be undertaken during work hours. As always, do give us a call or drop us an email if you have any questions and one of the tutoring team will be very happy to talk it through with you.
We’ll be totally honest here and say that before the pandemic hit in 2020, as a training company, we had not done any online training. If it had not been for the pandemic then that would still be the case as we had never been huge fans of online learning. However, in 2020 we had to change what we were doing in order to fulfil our commitment to our students who were enrolled on courses, and so moved all our CMI courses completely online. I’m delighted to say since then we’ve had many many students now complete their qualifications completely online, and we have had fantastic feedback from delegates and their employers. It has meant that we’ve been able to have a wider range of students because people can log in from anywhere around the UK and beyond. This is great for students as they are getting a broader mix of peers to interact and learn from.
If you’re looking to study online, we would still urge people to do their research as not all online training is the same. Some training will be completely ‘virtual’ with students watching recorded sessions, or reading materials online. Others may be a mix of self-directed online learning and ‘live’ workshops. At Gateway, we have ensured we replicate the face to face learning online, so all our online courses are delivered as remote ‘live’ workshops with interactive discussions, breakout rooms, chats, whiteboards and polls.
Online training may not be for everyone but we love that we can give people options – some of the benefits our training clients have reported have been reduced travel time and associated costs, the ability to roll out consistent training cross multiple sites in the UK and being able to honour flexible working arrangements agreed with staff.
Absolutely not! While it would definitely be ideal for all managers to have the skills and ability to adopt a coaching style when it was needed, what you never want to do is limit the potential of coaching in your business. Providing the opportunity for others to develop the skills, traits and behaviours that would make them a top coach/mentor would increase the ability to share skills and knowledge amongst your business and improve business performance.
