Busy Bees leading by example

07/01/2011

(Picture - from the front clockwise – Busy Bees directors and managers Louise Copson, Keelie Leahy, Vikki Skinner, Roberta Simpson, Cheryl Creaser, Karen D’Aguilar, Mary Jones and Carole Chadderton)

Directors at childcare organisation Busy Bees are leading by example as the company works towards reaching Government development targets ahead of schedule.

The UK’s longest established national provider of childcare and education has engaged 36 of its directors and managers on a pioneering leadership and management training programme from Busy Bees’ 122 nursery child care centres across the country.

The programme has been designed and delivered by management training company Acua Limited at Busy Bees’ Burntwood headquarters in Staffordshire and Crawley, West Sussex as the company sets about making sure all its centres are graduate led by 2015.

This also follows a need for improvement in leadership and management skills in the UK, an area of competitive weakness in the economy and widely acknowledged as a key driver for economic growth. And as the UK battles out of recession, that is more vital than ever before.

Acua’s development programmes are tailored to suit each individual client and are led by its Business Coaches at clients’ premises as employees work towards gaining higher education skills and qualifications accredited by Acua’s parent organisation Coventry University.

Busy Bees HR Director, Clare Phizacklea said the programme has proved to be challenging and rewarding for the company’s team of directors and managers.

“Soon every manager based at all of our child care centres will have to be qualified to degree level.” she said.

“To earn qualifications through programmes that have been designed with our company objectives at the forefront and are directly linked to the tasks we perform day in day out will have a massive impact on this process.

“Previously the majority of training involved employees working towards achieving NVQs and general degrees but this new work based learning programme has far more benefit to the company as it takes in modules centered around cultural change within the company as well as personal and team development.

“The senior management team has really taken to the challenges that it faces and I’m sure the programme will have considerable impact on the development of each and every one of the child care centre managers. The flexible blended approach to learning ensured the learning was relevant and convenient to our roles. We took part in 1:1 coaching and group sessions that fit in around our working day.”

Acua Business Coach Jo Stott added: “Busy Bees was keen for us to design a programme which would not only help the organisation meet the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) targets set by the Government but to do so in a way which takes in as much of what the child care centre employees experience in their jobs as possible.

“The company’s regional directors have completed the first programme and are now progressing onto the Acua Leadership and Management foundation degree accredited by Coventry University. We are also looking forward to rolling it out to child care centre managers based all over the country which will have a direct impact on the quality service that Busy Bees provides to thousands of children all over the UK.”

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