M&SDP Case Study: Managment Diploma

The training and development need

 “We were well aware of the research about skills gaps in management in the industry, and recognised the need to develop our future managers with the relevant skills for the job. Staff had often progressed from site positions without the benefit of any Supervisory or management Training.”

“We knew that we needed to give people ways and means of becoming better managers – that will serve them and us best for the future.“

Other challenges included:

• a desire to foster collaboration between the company’s four divisions (Homes, Construction, Services, Civils)
•  to demonstrate positive attitudes towards learning – to show that development activities were part of work, rather than a distraction from it.

The project

The Diploma programme was launched as a pilot. It was set up and developed internally and was not accredited by an external body although the course was based on the National Occupational standards for management and Leadership.

The course itself, which was developed with a local training company, was delivered over an 18 month duration and included workshops, presentations from in-house and external speakers, and project work. It took 16 units from the National Occupational Standards for Management and Leadership, and also included four new units specifically developed to cover:

• environmental awareness
• IT
• review and evaluation practices

Some 24 potential participants were nominated from across the business, and 15 people were selected by interview. They were aged between 19 and 37, and were working in such roles as trainee technicians and quantity surveyors, estimators, plumbing/electrical supervisors and site managers. The majority had undergone little or no management training before.

Three of the participants were women, one of whom was a manager in the Plant department.

They were delighted to achieve a 70% success rate overall in those completing the programme. Two of the five delegates that dropped out still covered in excess of 80% of the coursework. The delegates who dropped off the course did so because of work and personal commitments. 

The benefits

The benefits to the individuals who took part were substantial.

“Because we took people from the different divisions of the company they benefitted from the experience of networking – at the time and for the future. They had exposure to senior management and learned formal skills in areas such as team building linked to the Institute of Management standards. Although the programme had no outside accreditation, the work logs, Individual Learning Plans and portfolios of work developed by the participants gave them the underpinning knowledge to apply for formal qualifications at NVQ level 3 or 4 and it is anticipated that a number of the delegates will apply for this route in due course in order to get their CSCS competence cards”.

“The benefit to the company was that the course demonstrated that the Group was prepared to invest in its people, and as such that we were encouraging them to stay with the business and grow with the business”.

“The project content that the trainees presented to the company’s senior management - on topics such as waste management and lean construction - is being seriously considered as part of the strategic development of the business.”

The lessons

“We went into the pilot looking at a 70% retention rate of those who took part.  Among those who completed the course but have since left, one has gone to Australia, one to Dubai, and one has moved within Rok”.

“Running the programme over 18 months was perhaps too long and may be more beneficial delivering over a shorter timescale of say 12 months”.

“It is important to have a rigorous selection process and to ensure that staff at all levels who are expected to engage with the programme are fully aware at the start what is expected of them”. 

“Senior management have to be seen to support the course and show a visible presence”

“A critical review process has to be in place to maximise the input from senior management and line management”

“Overall, however, the course was very important in showing people that you are serious about upskilling and developing them both for their benefit and that of the business”.

The participants

Greg Christie:

“I started at Tulloch as an apprentice joiner, but now I’m an assistant site manager.

“The course undoubtedly helped my confidence – both in networking with colleagues in other parts of the group, and also in interacting with senior people within the company. I’m still only 23. It taught me better time management and how to prioritise tasks as well as how to minimise waste and manage people by noticing what they need.

“I would say it has certainly helped my career. It’s quite a step from being on the tools to working alongside a site agent responsible for a job worth £10 million.

“I also recently completed a 5-day site safety management course, which required a major presentation at the end. But I sailed through that, because making presentations was a skill I had learned on the diploma course.”

Laura Lynn:

“When I started the course I was a trainee quantity surveyor with Tulloch Homes (which was not included in the Rok acquisition), and now I’m a manger in my own right as an assistant QS.

“In part that is down to the natural development of a career. But the course itself gave me much greater insight into different management styles as well as practical skills - such as managing budgets – that I now use on a daily basis.”

The spokesperson

Billy Sweeney, with a background in Civil Engineering, is training leader for Rok in Scotland. Billy has substantial experience in training having worked for local authority, private and public sector companies including, CITB (now ConstructionSkills), Lantra and Inverness College before joining Tulloch as Training manager in 2004.

The company

Rok aims to become the Nation's Local Builder™ by operating from a network of offices in major towns across the UK, using dedicated teams who live and work in their communities

Its teams provide building and maintenance services tailored to local needs

Rok has grown, in seven years, from a small regional company with half a dozen offices and annual revenue of £92m to a nationwide business with more than 5,500 employees and sales in excess of £950m

Today, Rok continues its rapid but sustainable expansion through a mixture of organic growth and acquisition and the board has made known its intention to increase it outlets across the UK to more than 100 in the next five years. 

In September 2006, Rok acquired the Tulloch Construction Division. The Tulloch Group with its headquarters in Inverness employed around 1,400 people throughout Scotland, including 170 apprentices, and turnover in 2006 was £160 million.

The Tulloch Training Academy was opened in April 2005 to deliver induction, health and safety and staff development training. The same year it published “A Vision of Workforce Development and Learning”, which recognised a specific requirement for management and supervisory training. As a result, the Tulloch Management Diploma was launched in May 2006.

Following the acquisition of Tulloch Construction into Rok the Management Development programme continued.

 The ConstructionSkills approach

The Management and Supervisory Development Programme (M&SDP) was set up in 2001 by ConstructionSkills (then CITB) to provide financial support to Federation members pursuing management qualifications, business improvement initiatives and management and supervisory training.

Research carried out in 2007 by ConstructionSkills identified a set of common management skills gaps and  revealed that almost one in five directors and senior managers in the industry has no formal qualifications at all.

The M&SDP fund is always fully used, and supports an average of 45 projects at a time. Since the programme was established, more than 300 projects have benefited, with 85-90% of all successful applications coming from Federations which represent small and medium-sized companies