星空传媒

Most firms go hell-for-leather to reel in the highest possible quality of graduates each year. These new recruits undertake their years of training, aiming to reach the promised land of chartership. Many also hope one day to progress into the upper echelons of the company. For the practices, being able to identify an excellent young prospect in terms of his or her ability as an engineer is different from being able to pick out the individuals who have the qualities to operate at the higher management levels of the business.

Training in this area, for engineers looking to progress their careers into more management based roles, is just as important as the graduate programmes undertaken en route to chartership. Sarah McGowan, who has risen to associate at Arup in just eight years, says that to be able to manage, and take on a leadership role, requires further specific training: "You can have the ability to do your job, but being able to manage a project isn't something you just know how to do. You need to be taught how to do this kind of thing, so courses in these areas are extremely important." McGowan undertook a ten-day training course in project management that was run jointly by Arup and Reading University. "It was very valuable because when a certain situation arises you can relate it back to what you learnt on the course and apply something that you would never have known about before."

The Engineering Management Partnership (EMP) offers chartered engineers across the industry the chance to develop their management skills by way of a distance-learning course. The partnership grew out of the Joint Board of Engineering Management, emerging in its current guise just four years ago. The course comprises three stages, the last of which offers participants the options of studying for a DipE, an MSc, an MBA or an EngD, all in engineering management. The programme is also transferable between jobs and the qualifications are recognised in the international marketplace. The course is aimed at engineers with between five and ten years experience looking to enhance their careers and gain a formal management qualification.

The first stage of the programme provides foundation knowledge, covering areas such as human resource management and understanding organisations. The second tier concentrates on strategy and problem solving, offering students a choice of electives that each focus on a different aspect of management. The decision the candidates make at stage three, as to the qualification they want to come out with, is usually based on their ultimate career goals, and the time available to them. Linda Franklin, marketing executive for EMP says: "It depends what their aspirations are, and how much time they are willing to devote to their studies. We do have graduates going into very senior positions having completed the MBA (which takes two years), as far up as director."

Less support for learning
Franklin though, has noticed a drop in the number of companies willing to support employees in further learning. "On our course it's about a 50:50 split between those who are funded by their firms and those who pay for themselves. There are definitely less firms supporting employees who want to do further training now. There doesn't seem as much emphasis on training now as there used to be."

Denis Lillie of White Young Green wanted to do his MBA course privately, but when the firm learned of his studies they offered to support him. That such help might not be as abundant now as it has in the past is due, says Lillie, to the current state of the market. "Workload is down, and across the industry in general there are budget restraints. I think you have to be careful not to sacrifice your core business as well. If you allowed everyone to train you'd end up with a company full of managers and few engineers."

Not everyone wants to move into management though, and it is the task of the senior members of a company to identify those who have the ability and the willingness to move into managerial positions. By running internal workshops, allowing employees to go on external short course sabbaticals, and also sending people out on secondment, White Young Green provides a number of avenues for staff keen to progress their careers. They currently have an individual on secondment at the DTI.

Lillie says that both the individual and the firm benefit from these experiences: "He went there because of his technical expertise, not his managerial skills, but he has been elevated by his peers to lead a working party that has to report back to government. When he comes back he'll have helped us enhance our relationship with that body and he'll also be able to build a team around his knowledge."

The philosophy at Hoare Lea is that people gain management experience through the roles they are asked to take on. Associate Paul Tymkow says: "People gain more management skills through the type of work we do. The roles that people are asked to fulfil attract managerial tasks. For example as leader of a project team, they will have management tasks, like costing, resource management and people management."

This broadening of experience is vital for engineers looking to take on leadership roles at a higher level in their organisations. The skills required are different from that of a 'job running' engineer, and the use of delegation at management level is a key component in making a success of a senior role. Lillie says that this requires a different mind set from that of a project working engineer. "When you're an engineer on a project you're very focused on your responsibilities. But when you're managing, you need a much broader skills base. You have to break out of the engineering focus and delegate. It's important to let other people take responsibility and ownership. If you don't, this is where management stress comes in."

Taking the pressure off
To remove the possibility of stress being put on individuals new to their senior roles, White Young Green employ a mentoring system. If a member of the board of directors wants to help an individual progress into a more senior management role, they become their mentor and act in an advisory role. "We have a guy looking after our management services business who has come up from engineer and project manager. He's working closely with the managing director of that area." That relationship allows the individual to discuss problems with a senior member of the organisation more as a friend than as a boss, which works well. "There's no threat there. If he's managing the business in an inappropriate way, he can talk it through and resolve it rather than being reprimanded."

Certain people will always rise to the top of their professions. They are the ones already equipped with the necessary attitudes and the required skills and wont need to undertake a lot of training to be able to move into higher positions. For those with the desire, but perhaps not yet the know-how, there is a whole spectrum of opportunities to gain the skills necessary to be successful in management.

While chances to move up could be scarce at present, the fact that an interest is shown will certainly enhance your own marketability. There aren't many companies who will let people who demonstrate that level of enthusiasm go elsewhere.