Start a Business or Get a Job as a Manager
- Good management makes the difference between success and failure; efficiency and wasted resources.
- Develop a capacity to manage a small business, start a small business and manage projects.
This course provides the building blocks of management knowledge. Covering areas such as Bookkeeping, Motivation, Supervision, Business Planning, Project Management and Industrial Psychology, it will equip you with the knowledge and skills that will help to grow your business.
Modules
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Management is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
COURSE STRUCTURE
This course is made of up 6 modules: two core modules and 4 elective modules.
To obtain the Certificate in Management, you must successfully complete all assignments and pass an exam in each of six modules.
CORE MODULES (you must study these):
Management
There are 6 lessons as follows:
- Introduction & Organizational Structures
- Management Theories & Procedures
- Problem Solving & Decision Making
- Management Styles & External Influences
- Employing People & Interview Skills
- Staff Management
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Course aims
On successful completion of the course you should be able to do the following:
- Explain the role of managers in an organization and the kinds of organizations in which they function.
- Identify the processes and procedures that are associated with the effective management of staff in the workplace.
- Describe the use of motivation in the workplace and the effects this can have on staff performance.
- Describe how to recruit and interview a new staff member for a specific job in an organisation.
- Discuss work group project preparation, costing, performance analysis and goal completion from a managerial perspective.
- Describe the principles of Occupational Health and Safety policies, and their application in your industry sector.
Project management
Project Management is an invaluable tool used in all industries, and in all sorts of situations. It is relevant to a diverse range of projects, including technical, human resources, marketing, and more.
This is a compressed version of a much longer course, so it is highly informative, and great value for money.
It was developed by highly qualified professionals, with years of experience in their respective fields.
There are nine lessons as follows:
- Introduction
Understanding what project management is, and what its applications might be.
- Project Identification
Identification and defining projects which need management.
- Project Planning
Developing a strategy and framework for the plan.
- Project Implementation
Managers duties during implementation, developing a Preparation Control Chart,
Regulating implementation.
- Project Completion & Evaluation
Dangers in this stage, Steps in Project completion, Declaring a project sustainable,
Developing an evaluation method.
- Technical Project Management Skills
Preparing a proposal, budget control/management, steps in drawing up a
post project appraisal.
- Leadership Skills
Styles of leadership, leadership principles and methods.
- Improving Key Personnel Skills
Listening skills, Negotiation skills, Conflict management.
- Major Assignment
Developing full documentation for a project.
ELECTIVE MODULES (Choose 4 from the list below)
Motivation
This course contains eight lessons, as follows:
1. Introduction
Describe the nature and scope of motivation, and identify the differences between people that distinguish the application of motivational skills to achieve a successful outcome
2. Awareness
Explain the significance of knowledge and understanding to motivation.
3. Tangible Rewards
Explain the effect of Tangible Rewards (eg: Money, Services, Goods) as a major motivator.
4. Intangible Rewards
Explain the effect of intangible Rewards (eg: Security, Ethics, Gratitude, Belief Systems/Religion, Peer Pressure) as a major motivator.
5. Negative Motivators
Explain how actions can be motivated by negative motivators (eg. Pain, Suffering, Discipline, Threats), and distinguish this type of motivation from that achieved through positive motivators.
6. Initiating Motivation
Explain how to initiate motivation with an individual or group for a situation not previously confronted.
7. Maintaining Motivation
Explain how motivation can be maintained or increased in both successful and unsuccessful environments.
8. Applications
Identify a wide range of situations where motivational skills can be applied, and determine an appropriate way to initiate and maintain motivation in each of those situations.
Supervision 1
There are 10 lessons as follows:
- Introduction - Organisational structures & responsibilities.
- Understanding the work place - Government and private personnel departments, unions.
- Communications and human relations.
- Motivating employees.
- Organising the work place.
- Problem solving techniques.
- Discipline, complaints and grievances.
- Interviewing, recruitment, training.
- Work place safety.
- Dealing with management/worker participation/ report writing/ staff meetings.
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Industrial Psychology
There are ten lessons in this course, as follows:
- Introduction
- Free Will versus Determinism, Developmental and Interactive Expressions of Behaviour, NATURE versus NURTURE, Influence of Environment on Learning Behaviour, Modelling and Conformity, Conditioning involves Certain Environmental Factors which Encourage Learning to Take Place, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Reinforcement & Punishment
- Understanding the Employees Thinking
- Sensation and perception, thinking and day dreaming, the Gestalt approach, unconscious and conscious psychic elements. explaining behaviour, knowledge of brain processes, personal interpretation of a given situation, instinct. Terminology including: Mating, Curiosity, Maternal, Acquiring, Repulsion, Constructiveness, Rivalry, Laughter, Fighting, Walking, Swallowing, Play, Imitation, Sleep, Modesty, Domineering, Religion, Self Asserting, Sneezing, Thirst, Cleanliness, Workmanship, Parenting, Food seeking, Flight, Collecting, Sympathy.
- Personality & Temperament
- Mature & immature temperaments (eg. Sanguine, Melancholic, Choleric, Phlegmatic), emotional types, fear, intelligence, knowledge, deviation, etc
- Psychological Testing
- The Application Form; Psychological Test; The Interview; Intelligence Tests; Laws of Learning; Devising Tests; Selecting Appropriate Tests.
- Management & Managers
- Qualities of Managers, Understanding morale, discipline, training, etc
- The Work Environment
- Noise, Space, Light, Temperature, Speed of Work, etc. Accidents, Breakages, Fatigue etc.
- Motivation and Incentives
- Maslows model of self actualisation, Security, Money, Ambition, Companionship, Social reinforcement, Labour wastage, etc
- Recruitment
- Ways of seeking applicants, types of interview, ways of selecting staff.
- Social Considerations
- Group Behaviour, Conformity, Industrial Groups, The Hawthorne Effect
- Abnormalities and Disorders
- Psychosis Neurosis Personality Disorders, Variance, Partial Disability (eg. arm.leg injuries; epilepsy, digestive disorders etc), The Psycho Neurotic
Conflict Management
If you want to improve your conflict-management skills or if you want to help others improve theirs, you will find this course very beneficial.
There are eight lessons in this course, as follows:
- Conflict Management and Anger
- Listening
- Negotiation
- Mediation
- Facilitation
- Balance of Power
- Discussion and Group Work
- Crisis Analysis and Responses
Course aims
- Describe the nature of human conflict and ways to manage it.
- Explain the importance of listening when dealing with conflict situations, and appreciate different listening techniques.
- Define negotiation and discuss the process of negotiation
- Define mediation and discuss the process of mediation
- Define facilitation and discuss the process of facilitation
- Discuss problems that may arise through negotiation, in particular, balance of power and its connotations
- Explain the importance of working in groups as a means of learning how to deal with group conflicts
- Explain ways of understanding and dealing with different types of crisis.
Bookkeeping I
This is a sound foundation course for anyone working or wishing to work in bookkeeping, including:
- Business owners
- Administration or accounts employees
- Anyone seeking a career as a bookkeeper
ACS is an Accredited Training Centre by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. Students who complete this course are eligible to join this institute which is the largest such institute in the bookkeeping industry -world wide.
There are 13 lessons as follows:
- Introduction – Nature and Function of Accounting for Service Firms
- Balance Sheet
- Analysing and Designing Accounting Systems
- The Double Entry Recording Process
- Cash Receipts and Cash Payments Journal
- Credit Fees and Purchases Journal
- The General Journal
- Closing the Ledger
- Profit and Loss Statement
- Depreciation on Non-current Assets
- Profit Determination and Balance Day Adjustments
- Cash Control: Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash
- Cash Control: Budgeting
Bookkeeping II
There are 12 lessons as follows:
- Trading firms and accounting rules
- Physical Inventory System
- Perpetual Inventory System
- Inventory Valuation
- Accounting for bad and doubtful debts
- Classified Profit and Loss Statements for trading firms
- Control Accounts
- Budgeting for Trading Firms
- Statement of Cash Flows
- Alternatives in Accounting
- Analysis and Interpretation of Accounting Reports
- Business Expansions and Sources of Finance
Business Planning
There are 11 lessons as follows:
- Introduction to Business Planning – The business plan, strategic and operational planning, feasibility studies, the executive summary.
- Focus and Direction – Deciding on direction, visualising future business directions, vision and mission statements
- Legal and Administrative Requirements – Legal structure of a business, business names, taxation, regulations, licenses and permits, types of business ownership
- Developing Objectives and Strategies – Setting goals and objectives, SWOT and GAP analyses, strategies for achieving objectives
- Planning for Growth – Planned as opposed to runaway growth, subcontracting, franchising, licensing, the growth plan
- Risk Management and Contingencies – Approaches to risk management, identifying business risks
- Systems – System components, the quality audit, bench
marking, business plans as a mechanism of control
- Marketing Plans – The definition of marketing, marketing requirements, the marketing process, market research, implications of unplanned marketing
- Operation Plans – Control of business operations, writing an operation plan
- Human Resource Plans – The value of human resources, occupational health and safety, skills and competencies of different staff
- Financial Plans – The importance of financial planning, establishment costs and start up capital, cash flow forecasts, profit and loss statements
GOOD MANAGERS ARE ALWAYS IN CONTROL
“Maintain your focus and control is much easier”
Effective control requires determination, decisiveness and focus.
Some managers lose control because the scope of activities they are attempting to control simply grows too much, their attention spreads too thinly, and they lose focus.
Managers need to understand their own limitations, and when things grow beyond their capacity for control; they must either delegate some of their responsibilities to others, or reduce the scope of activity back to a level which can be controlled.
Urgent work is not necessarily the same as important work. Sometimes it can be more appropriate to abort a time sensitive job than to finish it at the expense of a more important job. A manager needs to be aware of priorities that are essential for the running of their organisation and have control over that. A manager must never lose focus of what the overall aim of their organisation or department is.
How Much is Enough Control?
Always consider how much control you need. You are running the team, you are the manager, so the final responsibility will stop with you. You as manager, do need to lead and keep control of the team, the organisation, the departments, and the other managers you are in charge of. But being in control does not mean you have to do everything, or that you do not need advice or support. So ensure that you are a good, balanced manager - delegate where necessary or modify equipment, resources or procedures so you can manage well, keep an eye on your own continued professional development as well as that of your team.
With all of the above, it can be hard to organise and plan and maintain control over an organisation, but the main point is to maintain focus on what you are trying to do. If it all seems overwhelming, break the tasks and activities down into smaller goals and sub targets that are reachable for everyone. Revise activities at the end of the week to make sure everyone is still on track to the goals.
If you always keep that end goal in your mind, have sub targets and time to reassess and maintain direction and make adjustments that need to be made periodically to keep on track, then what you do should move you and the organisation towards that goal. It is like writing an essay - you should keep your mind on “what information do I need to answer this question?” What are the chapters or steps in place to reach this and the sub chapters or dot points to achieve along the way. Working as a manager is a similar principle, you should always focus on what you are trying to achieve.
