Management Training Schemes
A management training scheme or program is a great avenue for a people just entering the workforce to gain valuable experience and often a full-time placement. A typical management training program will involve exposure to a company from many different angles, formal and informal learning, a project and daily responsibilities. Depending on the size of the company and the set up of the program, the program (or internship) can last anywhere from three months to an entire year.
The biggest component of a well-designed management training scheme will be the exposure to a number of different parts of the company. For some companies, this will mean that the participant will either job-shadow or even work in a great number of departments, including the general labor pool. Even if someone knows that they would prefer to manage a marketing department or a group of accountants, seeing all the different sides of how the company does business is invaluable. Experiencing how the staff work their everyday job, can give a potential management candidate a greater appreciation for the work they do and the challenges that they may face. An experience like this can also allow a candidate to truly determine where they fit best in practice versus what they thought they may enjoy doing.
The learning portion of the program may be set up that the participant attends classroom training for one or several weeks before beginning the experience portion of the program or they may have training interspersed throughout the entire length of the program. The set up will be highly dependent on the type of daily responsibilities the participant will have. If he or she is expected to work typical job responsibilities while taking part in the other aspects of the program, the training will likely be upfront as they need to be prepared. If the scheme is more of an experiential program, the training will be throughout to help them learn as they move throughout the company. In either case, the training will often be a mix of both formal and informal training. The formal learning can occur in a classroom setting and can involve take home work like reading and assessments. Informal learning is often more of a one-on-one interaction where a mentor or leader is giving information that is required for the situation at hand. This informal learning requires the buy-in of other managers and directors, as they must be willing to take on the added responsibility of developing other people.
Finally, the project and daily responsibilities that are involved in the majority of management training programs will be highly dependent on both the length of the program and the depth of the experience. Some programs will require simple presentations by individuals or groups at the end of the time to summarize what they learned. A more intensive program will push participants to not just summarize information they already know, but actually create new ideas. This may include pitching marketing campaign ideas to senior management or creating a new purchasing system to save the organization money. These types of projects can only be accomplished when the participants have a great deal of access to the corporation and the support of their leaders to brainstorm a new or unique concept.
When choosing a management training scheme, there is rarely a right or wrong answer. The most important consideration is whether the program will contribute to the achievement of a person's long-term career goals. This may mean that a shorter internship at one company may be more valuable than a year-long experience at another because it is in the industry that the management candidate is most interested in and would like to work in.
