Madgex and the Train to Gain scheme run by City College Brighton and Hove are kindly helping me, and my fellow team leaders, to work towards our Level 3 NVQ in Management. I haven't studied for any qualification since 1993 when I graduated from university, so this whole learning thing is a bit overwhelming. However, this is a vocational qualification rather than academic and so should be more relevant to what I actually do/should do (I hope!)

The information tells me that this is suitable for me if:

you are a practising first line manager who has:
  • a tightly defined area of responsibility
  • some limited opportunity for taking decisions and managing budgets
  • responsibility for achieving specific results by using resources effectively
  • responsibility for allocating work to team members, colleagues and contractors
Well, I don't have any budgetary control, and I'm not sure my area of responsibility is tightly defined but the rest is a pretty good fit...

There are 7 units to complete - 4 are mandatory and the remaining 3 are taken from a choice of 11 based on relevance to the current role. The mandatory ones are:

  • Manage your own resources and professional development
  • Provide leadership in your area of responsibility
  • Allocate and monitor the progress and quality of work in your area of responsibility
  • Ensure health and safety requirements are met in your area of responsibility

I met with my assessor yesterday and had a good overview of where we start and what I need to do. I'll be meeting with her on a monthly basis, and will also have one of the Senior Managers from Madgex on hand to give advice and support. My first homework for this month is to
  • update my CV
  • dig out my job description
  • read the definitions of all the mandatory units
  • read the definitions for all the optional units and work out which I believe to be most relevant and discuss them with both my line manager and my Senior Manager mentor
  • complete the worksheet with questions relating to our industry

Wish me luck!