Monday, July 13, 2009
The Accidental Leader Programme starts tomorrow!
We had a quick chat with Lynn Kelly, Head of Skills at Northwest Vision and Media about why they decided to back the course, created to help develop ‘Accidental Leaders’ in team effectiveness and digital.
How come you are financing a course for Accidental Leaders? What do you see is the need?
Vision and Media has worked with media companies for a long time and in lots of ways - through investment, helping them to find new talent and developing leaders themselves through industry specific mentoring and coaching around business planning, discovering new markets, international programmes etc. Generally though, leaders of creative and digital companies have not been big takers of management and leadership training - they tend to be really good creatively or technically, so much so that their business flourishes and before they know it they've got an expanding number of employees to look after as well as everything else a business needs to continue being successful, hence the name Accidental Leader!
Bringing leadership training to the Northwest has been a big priority for Northwest Vision and Media, the Northwest Development Agency (the primary funders of this programme) and Skillset (the Sector Skills Council) over the last few years and especially now that MediaCityUK is taking shape, it's vital that our business leaders have the right personal and business skills to enable them to take any opportunities that come their way. This is why we've worked hard to get the funding for this programme and get something really special for the region.
What are your expectations on the course?
We hope that the people who attend this course find it invaluable, something they can look back on as a defining moment for themselves as leaders and for their businesses. Looking at it from an investment point of view though, we hope it has a positive impact on the bottom line of their companies!
How come Hyper Island got the very exciting job to deliver the course?
We wanted something specific to the Digital and Creative industries, a provider that the participants could connect with and understood their needs as well as their industry. So, we had a long and robust selection process: we put the contract out to open tender (it received the biggest number of proposals we've ever had for a tender), the best were shortlisted for an interview and to make sure we chose a provider that our industries could relate to, we had members of the TV and Digital industries on the panel. Hyper Island came out top across the board! They have a long history and a great reputation across the world plus they have developed an array of fantastic programmes specific to the Creative and Digital Industries. They also have a really different approach to training, this won't be any ordinary leadership course!
What else is going on in Manchester?
We're also funding the Accidental Manager course as part of the Digital and Media Skills Programme, this is aimed at the next tier down - the rising stars! It's being delivered by Kirkbright.
Thank you, Lynn!