If you feel intimidated in business meetings, learning new skills will help you feel more confident
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So you’ve got the shoes, the smarts, the attitude and the work ethic. But to stay ahead of the game, it’s vital to make sure your business and technology skills stay up to date.
Lorna Evans has fitted in her fair share of continuing professional development (CPD). As well as having completed numerous qualifications and courses, she runs Time For You Coaching, specialising in career and personal development. Despite her own business achievements, Evans is well aware of the challenges facing the modern business woman when it comes to boosting the CV. It’s the age-old problem, ‘If we have to go back to work we feel guilty that we can’t stay at home to look after our little ones and we feel guilty that they are not enough for us,’ she says. ‘And taking the time out to do courses is seen as more on top. Another challenge is that family-friendly working in practice isn’t so easy. Small companies need people who will be at their desk five days a week all day.’
Back to school
A number of the leading business schools offer distance courses and flexible learning options. Warwick Business School is generally recognised as one of the UK’s best. It was ranked top in the UK in the recent Economist Intelligence Unit Distance Learning MBA rankings, rating it second in Europe and third in the world. The Warwick MBA can be completed in anything from three to eight years, starting in January or June, and the final qualification will simply be a Warwick MBA with no indication of study mode. The only compulsory attendance is at an annual eight-day September seminar in the city.
Manchester Business School offers a part-time/blended learning Global MBA, designed to meet the needs of full-time workers or people juggling work and childcare. This is done via online collaborative working and virtual learning technologies, as well as regular face-to-face residential workshops.
The Edinburgh Business School’s (EBS) courses have been specially designed to meet the needs of students in the workplace and are available through a distance learning self-study programme. EBS also offers four-day seminars and two-day revision seminars in certain courses on campus in Edinburgh.
Of course, not everybody has the time or the capacity to undertake an MBA or an academic-based business course. But there are a number of on-the-ground courses for working executives and business owners.
Women ownership
The Annual Small Business Survey 2008 places the number of female-owned businesses in the UK at 602,000, just 14% of the total. Prowess is a UK association of organisations and individuals supporting the growth of women’s business ownership. Each year Prowess supports the launch of 25,000 new businesses, 39% of which are women-owned and they also provide business-networking events for 40,000 people. Prowess also directly supports 18,000 people into jobs and further training, 42% of which are women.
A third of the female population would start a business if it wasn’t for fear of failure, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003 (a not-for-profit academic research consortium). This is why women’s networks are important says Lorna Evans. ‘When in a mixed group women are often intimidated by men and less likely to ask questions and put ideas forward.’ With this in mind, the WDA has set up a website wmwomenbusinesscentre.com, offering online training modules in areas such as personal development, marketing and selling, finance and legal and business planning. It’s designed for women by women and provides tips, factsheets and templates for business planning and growth.
Toni Eastwood OBE agrees. She is training and development director at Everywoman, the UK’s leading provider of training, resources and support services for women in business. ‘It’s not a sweeping generalisation,’ she says. ‘Women have a different way of managing, a different way of expressing their needs. A lot of the issues might be the same but women and men deal with them in different ways.’
‘One of the main differences,’ says Eastwood, ‘is that women tend to want to create a nice environment to work in rather than be an autocratic leader, they are also less likely to take risks. This means they tend to think about things in more detail. She adds, ‘There is an economic imperative in all of this. We really can’t afford 50% of the workforce not to be at a level at which their talent should allow them to be.’
Everywoman’s training courses are set up with the business woman in mind, whether in a small enterprise or a major organisation, from half-day workshops and seminars to qualification programmes and bespoke management training programmes. The Everywoman Leadership Development Programme, for example, covers modules in leading with charisma, harnessing emotional intelligence, improving team performance and becoming comfortable with power. But, while these courses might improve your business acumen, do they improve your CV? A coaching course might mean you have increased confidence, but does it mean anything on paper?
On the job training
National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are based on national occupational standards, set and designed by the relevant sector body. Usually delivered in the workplace or a workplace-replicated setting, they are certificated but outcome-based. Everywoman offers NVQs up to level five in management and leadership, accredited by the Management Institute, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, Institute of Leadership and Management and the Institute of Customer Service.
Maggie Berry runs womenintechnology.com, an online job resource and forum for women working in the technology industry. The website developed out of a piece of diversity research undertaken in 2004 highlighting the lack of females in IT. There are now more than 3,600 members in the network.
Berry says that when it comes to technical courses, in sectors such as IT, women-focused courses aren’t completely necessary. ‘Brains don’t have a gender!’ she laughs. ‘However because there are far fewer women than men reaching the top of the career ladder, especially in this industry, tailored courses are useful to tackle areas of working life that women in particular may struggle with.’
Just say no
By way of example, womenintechnology.co.uk is running a course called “The Art Of Saying No” because, says Berry, ‘Research shows that women are notorious for agreeing to do tasks they should turn down, which can cause burn-out.’ She adds, ‘It’s also important for organisations to offer upskilling and training to women returners to ensure that they are kept fully up to date.’
Berry also talks about what she calls “the motherhood penalty”. She says, ‘Not only is the technology sector struggling to attract female talent but it’s also failing to retain it. Recent research has shown that many women do not return to their jobs after having children as they feel that they miss out on new developments, networking opportunities and training. This has the knock-on effect of reducing their confidence in their ability to go back to work.’
She continues, ‘As the technology sector is often still fairly male-dominated, some women can sometimes struggle to make themselves heard and can feel isolated because of a lack of mentoring, access to role models and opportunities to network.’
Time out
It’s natural that some women will leave the workforce to start families and put their careers on hold, with family responsibilities taking priority. ‘This is of course understandable,’ says Berry. ‘But employers need to make it easier for women to return to work so they don’t lose out on female talent.’
Research carried out by womenintechnology.co.uk and Microsoft found that 90% of women in the technology industry agreed that more should be done to encourage women to return to their IT careers after maternity.
‘Many women are really worried about their ability to return,’ says Berry. ‘Some feel they have missed out on developments in the market and the business and others are worried about juggling family and work. Training, mentoring and flexible working are just some ways that this issue can begin to be tackled.’
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