Newsletter August 2008

After weeks of planning and online testing, the Graduate Assessment Centre was executed at one of the UK’s largest county councils.

Three consultants and one technician invited twenty eight graduates to undertake a series of tests and exercises specifically designed to assess the competencies required for the council.

Sixteen observers had been trained previously to understand the purpose of each test or exercise and how to mark the candidate’s performance against an agreed standard.

Sixteen of the graduates were put forward for interview.

Within a week of the completion of the Assessment Centre a review was held while memories were still fresh. Observations and feedback from all concerned was noted to inform any future assessment centre development for the council.

Other assignments include:

• Two three day residential programmes were run for two companies that supply the oil and gas industry here in the UK and overseas.
  
  The first programme titled “The Best in Leadership” was run for the senior management team of one of the companies. In addition to creating a sense of unity and effectiveness as a management team, each delegate gained a greater understanding of their individual responsibilities and discussed areas for improvement both as individuals and as an organisation.
  
  The second company ran a pilot event for cultural change. The company is growing quickly and is facing a number of challenges as a result of this growth. The “Pathfinder” programme brings together groups of people from different parts of the business to undertake a mixture of classroom learning and experiential tasks in an environment away from the workplace.
  The event was deemed a great success and will be rolled out to all staff to engage them with the new culture.
  
   
• The final Coaching and Mentoring session was conducted with the management team at an Isle of Wight harbour.
  
   
• Following the successful completion of a six module Management Development Programme, a Cardiff based training company has embarked on a series of workshops for the same managers under the title of Performance Management.
  The first workshop “Performance Improvement” was run in August.
  
   
• A two day Effective Communications course was run for a group of engineering consultants.
  
   
• Three days of Mentor Training were run for a large engineering company. The sessions for those assigned to mentor graduates and apprentices were run at the company’s locations in Bristol and Stevenage.