Online Course in Personnel Management and Human Resources
Learn to be a Supervisor, Foreman or Personnel Officer.- Tutors based in both Australia and the UK
- Build skills that make a difference to advancing a career in business or personnel management
This is a very solid training for anyone working or wishing to work as a supervisor or manager of people in any type of workplace.
The course was devised originally with input from a variety of independent industry representatives from outside the school; and it has been continually reviewed and revised in response to feedback from students (sought upon completion of each module), as well as feedback from teaching staff and industry contacts.
CORE UNITS
Office Practices
Develops basic office skills covering use of equipment, communication systems (telephone, fax, etc) and office procedures such as filing, security, workplace organisations, etc.
The course consists in eight lessons where these subjects are developed.
- The Modern Office
- Communication Systems
- Interpersonal Communications
- Phone Skills
- Writing Letters and Other Documents
- Computer Applications
- Office Organisation and Procedures
- Health and Safety in the Office
Business Operations
The aim of this course is to provide you with the building blocks for a successful career in business planning and operations. Covering topics such as business law, the money market, taxation, business plan writing and mistakes to avoid, it is a solid foundation, developed by highly qualified and experienced professionals.
Develops knowledge of basic business operations and procedures (eg. types of businesses, financial management, business analysis, staffing, productivity, etc) and the skills to develop a 12 month business plan.
There are 6 lessons as follows:
- Introduction
- Business law
- types of businesses
- starting a business
- Finance
- Liquidity
- The money market
- terminology
- insurance
- Financial Records
- Simple Bookkeeping procedures
- cash flow
- Financial Management
- Taxation
- costing
- budgeting
- investing
- Business Planning Developing a 12 month business plan.
- Mistakes to avoid
- Reasons for business failures
- profitability
- improving productivity
Management
Make sure your management style is grounded in the 'tried and true'. This course outlines management theories and procedures, problem solving and decision making tactics, staff management, supervision, recruitment and workplace health and safety.
Developed by professionals with a substantial amount of industry experience, it is the perfect foundation for a successful career.
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
Marketing Foundations
Develops a broad understanding of marketing and specific skills in writing advertisements, undertaking market research, developing an appropriate marketing plan and selling. The course consists in ten lessons, as follows:
- Marketing and the Business What is marketing, and its significance, Considering alternative approaches to business & marketing, Alternative enterprises (eg. goods or services based, sole proprietor or partnership etc).
- Scope of Marketing Understanding basic economics (eg. supply & demand); the difference between the potential market, available market, target market, and penetrated market for a product/service of your choice; Different advertising approaches, Controlling Growth, Improving Results in Business, etc
- Target Marketing Understanding the market place; Stages that sellers move through in their approach to a market, What is targeting, Advantages of target marketing as compared to mass marketing and product-differentiated marketing
- The Marketing Mix and Managing the Marketing Effort Product, price, place, and promotion; Affects and interactions between marketing and other operations of a business.
- Product Presentation and Packaging Importance of product knowledge, Core, tangible and augmented products; Differences in packaging & presentation for different products.
- Promotion Communication skills, Merchandising, Shop Floor Layout, Displaying Products, Signs, Understanding Selling and Increasing Sales, Sales Methods, Publicity Marketing, Structuring an Advertisement or Promotion, Advertising budgets, etc
- Product Pricing and Distribution Pricing, Profitability Ratios, Increasing Turnover, etc
- Customer Service Methods of assessing customer satisfaction; Significance of Customer Service; Different types of customers in the market place, and how best to approach each; Difference between selling, publicising, marketing and advertising, etc
- Market Research The research process, What to research, Surveys, Developing and conducting a market research program, where to find useful statistics,
- Organisations - Structures and Roles Business law; Financial Management, Business Structures, Business terminology, etc.
STREAM UNITS
1. Supervision
There are ten lessons in this module as follows:
1. Introduction - Organisational structures & responsibilities.
2. Understanding the work place ‑ Government and private personnel departments, unions.
3. Communications and human relations.
4. Motivating employees.
5. Organising the work place.
6. Problem solving techniques.
7. Discipline, complaints and grievances.
8. Interviewing, recruitment, training.
9. Work place safety.
10. Dealing with management/worker participation/ report writing/ staff meetings.
2. 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.
3. Personnel Management
This course contains nine lessons, as follows:
1. Human behaviour: Understand how perception, learning and prior experience influence human behaviour
2. Workplace communications: Identify and practice communication skills that will improve your ability to effectively receive and transmit messages in the workplace
3. Workplace conditions: Understand some factors that contribute to overall workplace conditions and can affect workplace culture
4. Controlling Operations: Explain basic supervising practices for controlling business or department operations
5. Recruitment and Induction: Identify essential processes in the recruitment and induction of employees
6. Staff training: Understand the key elements of planning and conducting effective staff training
7. Work teams: Describe how team processes can be used to improve performance and productivity
8. Positive Discipline: Identify methods to establish and maintain discipline through positive means, such as reinforcement
9. Grievances & Complaints: Describe strategies for reducing dissatisfaction and handling dissatisfaction when it arises
10. Monitoring and reporting: Understand the importance of monitoring workplace processes and performance, and how to report your observations
INDUSTRY PROJECT OR WORK EXPERIENCE
This is the final requirement that you must satisfy before receiving your award.
There are two options available to you to satisfy this requirement:
Alternative 1.
If you work in the industry that you have been studying; you may submit a reference from your employer, in an effort to satisfy this industry (ie. workplace project) requirement; on the basis of RPL (ie. recognition for prior learning), achieved through your current and past work experience.
The reference must indicate that you have skills and an awareness of your industry, which is sufficient for you to work in a position of responsibility.
Alternative 2.
If you do not work in the relevant industry, you need to undertake a project as follows.
Procedure for a Workplace Project
This project is a major part of the course involving the number of hours relevant to the course (see above). Although the course does not contain mandatory work requirements, work experience is seen as highly desirable.
This project is based on applications in the work place and specifically aims to provide the student with the opportunity to apply and integrate skills and knowledge developed through various areas of formal study.
Students will design this project in consultation with a tutor to involve industry based activities in the area of specialized study which they select to follow in the course. The project outcomes may take the form of a written report, folio, visuals or a mixture of forms. Participants with relevant, current or past work experience will be given exemption from this project if they can provide suitable references from employers that show they have already fulfilled the requirements of this project.
For courses that involve more than 100 hours, more than one workplace project topic may be selected. For example, 200 hours may be split into two projects each of 100 hours. This will offer the student better scope to fulfill the needs of their course and to meet the number of hours required. Alternatively, the student may wish to do one large project with a duration of 200 hours.
Students will be assessed on how well they achieve the goals and outcomes they originally set as part of their negotiations with their tutor. During each 100 hours of the project, the students will present three short progress reports. These progress reports will be taken into account when evaluating the final submission. The tutor must be satisfied that the work submitted is original.
If the student wishes to do one large 200 hour report, then only three progressive reports will be needed (however the length of each report will be longer).
WHAT DOES A SUPERVISOR DO?
The key to success of any company or organisation is good management and the key to good management is the Supervisor. Good supervision is, in fact, the single most important factor in the success of any advanced economy.
What are the responsibilities of a supervisor? He or she must be able to:
- communicate with employees
- give directions
- dictate letters
- set production goals and check performances
- give interviews
- communicate with other supervisors
- write reports and read them
- check mail
- attend meetings
- make decisions about new projects
- decide on promotions and demotions
The skills needed to handle this array of tasks are
a) Technical skills,
b) Human skills,
c) Conceptual skills.
Where does a supervisor fit in the organisational structure?
The answer to this question depends upon the organisation and its organisational structure. Most people spend 50% of their waking hours at work. In view of this, you should understand how your job fits in the overall company structure. You must know how the company is organised, what it consists of, and how the parts work together to make a coordinated "well oiled" operation instead of a disjointed, poorly working firm. Some organisations are large and complex, with many levels of management above the supervisor; while others can be small; where the supervisor and departmental manager is the same person.
In larger organisations, levels of management might be defined as follows:
Top Management
Role: Policy Making
Examples: Board of Directors, Business Owner, Administrator, Receiver (in the case of a business in receivership).
Chief Executive Officer
Role: Managing the entire organisation in line with established policy
Examples: Managing Director, General Manager, President, Director, Commissioner, Minister (in the case of government)
Senior Management
Role: Manage a single broad function such as Finance, Services, Marketing, Production, Development, Investment, Stock, etc.
These managers report direct to the Chief Executive Officer.
Examples: Marketing Manager, Financial Manager, Personnel Director
Middle Management
Role: Responsible for specialised functions that together make up a broad function
Examples: Advertising manager, Data Processing Manager
Supervisory Management
Role: Responsible for managing Line positions or work operatives. They directly control the lowest levels of employees; and are responsible to report to middle managers; rather than senior or higher management levels.
Examples: Team Supervisor, Team Manager, Head Electrician, Maintenance Coordinator, Office supervisor, Shop Floor Manager
These definitions are not the same in all organizations, so do not treat this as anything more than a very general insight into how different levels of management might be delineated.
What does a supervisor do?
The supervisor is the first line of management. A supervisor is responsible for:
- implementing policies
- implementing plans
- implementing procedures
- in ways that will maximize productivity.
The supervisor sets goals and objectives for his subordinates in order to achieve the policies, plans and procedures laid down by higher levels of management. Some of the activities that might be involved in setting goals are:
- Job study and analysis (i.e. studying and understanding the work that is required, and analyzing the work). This is best written down or entered into a computer data base;
- Organising resources (e.g. materials and equipment needed for the work, space, information etc.);
- Defining work roles (e.g. staff selection, induction, training, deciding whether staff are taken from existing staff, or outside/new staff are selected);
- Conveying orders to the subordinates (directing the work);
- Motivating subordinates;
- Monitoring and controlling the work (e.g. adjusting allocation of human and non human resources);
- Coordinating (e.g. Interacting with other departments or outside organisation or individuals, whether management, or suppliers of services to the work team, or clients who the work team is serving).
HOW DOES STUDY GET YOU A JOB?
Nothing ever guarantees a job – but this course can set you apart from those that have not studied at all and it will improve your personal choices when applying for jobs.
Each job listed usually gets a huge amount of response – when employers choose people to interview they will look at a range of factors – what you have studied will be just one of those factors. You need to be able to catch a potential employer’s attention – stand out from the rest.
So what do employers look for in a supervisor?
- Great communication skills: verbal, written and also the ability to use a computer.
- Problem solving skills: thinking on your feet and working through problems in an orderly way.
- Efficiency: doing things in a logical order without compromising accuracy improves efficiency.
- Knowledge and skills demanded of the job.
- A passion for the work and willingness to learn.
- Presentation and grooming - people who present as being well organised and well-groomed will impress.
How Will A Course Help Me To Gain those Skills?
Choosing the right course will help i.e. one that develops knowledge, practical and also your problem solving skills. Not all courses do this. At ACS our courses focus on Problem Based Learning so this enables the student to develop these skills and at the same time using this learning method also improves you knowledge retention and recall.
What Can You do to Improve Your Career Prospects?
- Choose a course that you are passionate about – be open to learning and use this course to start building your future. Today we are expected to keep learning and studying in order to keep up with a world that is rapidly changing. Learning is a lifelong experience. Study a course that makes you stand out - a qualification that is different to all the other applicants will always catch the attention of a boss, and may be the difference between getting an interview or not.
- Network with people in the industry, attend conferences and trade shows – make yourself known to people in the industry in general.
- Try to build a range of skills – multi-skilled people catch the eye of the employer or potential employer.
- Write a good CV and ask for help if you need it. Tutors at this school will help our students with their C.V.'s if you ask -no cost. Resume Writing services can also be used, but they charge.
- Recognise your weaknesses and work on improving them - not just academically. And also know your strengths and demonstrate them.
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