First Line Management Level 3 - Diploma

The ILM Level 3 Diploma in First Line Management aims to give practising or potential first line managers the widest choice for their formal development in this role. The qualification does this by developing a very wide range of basic management skills and assisting participants in gaining the comprehensive knowledge required by a first line manager. This qualification builds on the ILM Level 3 Award and Certificate in First Line Management, though is more suited to the practising manager, due to the more challenging demands of the programme. Learners are not required to undertake either the Award or the Certificate as pre-requisites and may join Diploma programmes directly.

Structure: GLH = 165 hours Credits Awarded upon Completion = 37

Total Units Covered (Mandatory=13 & Optional = 14)

Unit Titles

• Solving Problems & Making Decisions;
• Planning Change In the Workplace;
• Understanding Change In The Workplace;
• Achieving Objectives Through Time Management;
• Writing for business;
• Managing creativity and innovation in the workplace;
• Obtaining information for effective management;
• Managing customer service;
• Giving briefings and making presentations in the workplace;
• Introduction to Leadership; Building the Team;
• Developing yourself and others;
• Managing conflict in the Workplace;
• Recruiting, selecting and inducting new staff in the workplace;
• Coaching and Training your Work Team;
• Providing Quality to Customers;
• Managing Projects; Managing Health and Safety at Work;
• Working with Costs & Budgets;
• Effective meetings for Managers;
• Marketing for Managers.

The Course Concept

Life in the new century is faster, harder and more demanding. This unit helps you to recognise the need to upgrade personal and interpersonal skills, to take account of the changes demanded by both a smaller world and the 'bigger picture', to enable you to face into the decision making process. The 21st Century is an ego-driven environment, although leadership is developing. Concepts such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming, transactional analysis and emotional intelligence enable us to understand how we can and must interact with ourselves and others in order to process others needs and how this information will affect our problem solving abilities. Communication skills have not stood still - this empowering course offers you the understanding and confidence to move with them.

One of the unarguable truths of our times is that change is constant.  This may seem like a contradiction in terms and it is certainly an idea that makes people feel out of control at times.  This unit will encourage you to view this concept of constant change as a vital and exciting part of your business life. Following on to this we need to understand how to plan for change, here we focus on the positive aspects of change, encouraging people to look to the future and help your business to move forward.  Learn how to get your team feeling empowered to take charge of the changes which affect them and learn to embrace the prospect of more exciting opportunities within their work and their lives.

Surveys in the early noughties revealed that only 14% of time spent at work is used efficiently. This means that the major resource of your business - your people - is being mishandled, wasted, abused and mismanaged. However, even this 'time wasting card' can be trumped by a reference to stress in the workplace. It kills. It damages your people, causes up to 80% of absenteeism, destroys morale and murders your profits. Our unit on Time and Stress Management takes a 21st Century look at an old problem. How can the theory be made useful and practical ... and what can we actually do about it?

Every piece of writing that leaves your organisation, either in written or electronic format, by way of a formal tender for business or the most innocuous memo, reflects and represents your most strongly held values and beliefs. This unit on Effective Business Writing has been designed with the 21st Century in mind. This is an information driven business world and judgments will be made based upon the style, content and flavour of all your written materials.

This is a must for those who want practical tips and techniques, and who do not want to become bogged down in a quagmire of grammar and syntax. All exercises and activities can be written to match your exact needs and we will design the course to incorporate the culture and tenor of your business.

Leadership has moved on so far from the old fashioned ‘do as I say’ style indicative of the late nineties, today we understand the importance of our teams being able to express creativity and innovation. Without it out business would stagnate and fall behind the competitors. We will look at what creativity is and how it is nurtured not stalled while demonstrating that concepts of tall poppy syndrome have no place in our new and modern approach to leadership behaviours.

Our customers are king! We all understand that there is a lot of validity in this statement although we often get bogged down with our day to day activities to realise that some where there is a person relying on us and what we do. Whether internal or external our customer focus must be paramount for our business to be successful. We look at implementing practical yet simple tools that will ensure our behavior reflects our passion for customer service.

Your team is the ambassador and the future of your business. It should not just emerge as an accident of fate, or via the haphazard enigma of promotions and relocations. Teams should be designed, motivated, driven and energised. Building A Great Business Team will introduce a new approach to team selection, training and bonding - leaving your people and business empowered and inspired to excel. We deal with this by addressing the barrier of team and individual egos and encouraging a sense of 'us'.

Many businesses have discovered that their people are dealing with more and more personnel issues and spending valuable time trying to resolve difficult and challenging problems. This can lead to lower morale and can demoralise the teams who work for them. This unit addresses the ‘win-lose’ approach with empathy, strength, a higher sense of ‘self’, changed patterns of communication and a broader view of what ‘serves’ the business. We look at how people deal with those they find ‘difficult’- the body language, eye signals and verbal intonation.

This unit takes a highly practical look at a specialised area of interviewing.  As well as the recognised elements of recruitment interviewing, such as rapport building, listening, questioning and information gathering, this course helps the delegate to identify the ideal person for a specific position.  Through lively and practical activities, delegates learn to carefully compare the candidate information with the ideal, and to develop skills that ensure they get the most out of the interview. Many of the techniques learnt during this course are entirely relevant for other interview situations.  The delegates will learn how to interpret body language signals, ask the right questions to follow up on their doubts and positive feelings about the candidates, and will gain the tools to plan and execute their interviews confidently. More importantly the delegate will learn what must not be asked and how to stay out of a tribunal before even employing a person.

People are the most valuable commodity in your business and their development is paramount to the future success of your aims, objectives, values and beliefs. Development of people must be aligned to the business and extends way beyond the training room. Here we learn how supporting your personnel function in a 'hands on' and positive way could be one of the key reasons your organisation achieves and exceeds all of its goals and targets in the future. Coaching for success instead of dictating is a leader’s prime skill; its importance must never be underestimated and in this unit we find out why.

Project management is an important part of every manager’s routine. This energising, creative and practical look into the skills, techniques and mind-set required to organise, manage and implement projects is a must for anyone in a managerial role. This course is written specifically for FLM’s and will give the skills to pass onto the project team members. It will follow the fundamentals of the topic, from initiation to implementation.

Whatever your organisation, you are legally required to have a qualified health and safety advice on hand preferably from internally trained team members. You should also ensure that you have conducted the appropriate health and safety risk assessments, including fire risk assessments. Failure to comply with your legal obligations in this area can result in an unlimited company fine, an individual fine, personal prosecution, imprisonment, director disqualifications and publicity of prosecutions.

All of this can be avoided this practical and thought provoking unit will ensure you know how to keep you and your team safe and operating legally.

This highly interactive programme demonstrates how you can balance the needs of the team while keeping the profit and loss account healthy. Finance is often a scary area that most new managers are apprehensive about and understanding cost and budget limitations is vital to run a profitable department / company.

Meetings are the cornerstone of an effectively run business. They rely upon dynamic interpersonal relationships, the communication of ideas, setting of objectives and reaction to the personalities and agendas of others. The leader of the meeting has an opportunity not only to reflect the tenor and pace of the meeting, but the positivity, proactivity and ‘feel’ of the business. It is about much more than objective setting - it is about advanced communication skills and the positive influencing of others, using negotiation and persuasion skills to bring out the best in others and reach conclusions that everyone can work to with pride and satisfaction.

Marketing can be a mine field of dos and don’ts. We simplify this key business area by introducing it through some short interactive sessions to cover all the key aspects you need to understand. Our main emphasis is on planning and preparation, keeping it relevant and practical for your own business and role. The session will be very lively and we will expand on the delegates own experience and enthusiasm to ensure you achieve gaining the tools and knowledge to market effectively. We want to use and develop their ideas and will help facilitate this with sound marketing practice and experience.

The Diploma develops a very comprehensive range of management skills, providing learners with the broad body of knowledge required by a first line manager. The qualification builds on the Award and Certificate, though is more suited to the practising manager. (Please note candidates are not required to undertake either the Award or Certificate as prerequisites and may join Diploma programmes directly). The additional mandatory units cover business communication – writing for business and making presentations – creativity and innovation for the workplace as well as information gathering and analysis, and managing customer service.

For further information please contact us on Cardiff 02921156603 or Freephone 08008488117

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