City Care pride themselves on being the one-stop-shop for all of New Zealand’s property and infrastructure maintenance needs. In a bid to continue their success, and to build on it, they approached Skills and The New Zealand Institute of Management and Leadership (NZIML), based in Christchurch, to discuss leadership training.
As an organization which seamlessly provides services across a broad spectrum of industries – from road construction, to tree services, to asset management – it was important to develop bespoke training which suited City Care’s needs. This would also enable them to continue operating at a high level, ensuring New Zealand is kept maintained at its best.
City Care identified mid-level leaders as well as up-and-comers to take part. The aim was to provide meaningful qualifications that would make a real difference to their daily work, as well as providing an understanding of business operations – the bigger picture.
Skills worked closely with NZIML to achieve this. As an educational provider that crafts leadership learning for member organisations NZIML were the perfect partner. They are uniquely placed to provide individuals with the knowledge to advance them in their career while also servicing the needs of their organisation.
NZIML created a blend of their original Team Leader Series workshops and integrated the unit standard assessments from Skills to develop a unique programme, and incorporate the nationally recognised Level 4 Leadership qualification.
Three key learning outcomes of the programme were – know yourself as a leader, get the best from working with your team and enhance productivity and performance in the workplace. The programme was designed and facilitated by Therese La Porte, Learning and Development Manager at NZIML, and executed by Skills assessors. Therese said of the programme: “Participants not only engaged in new learning, they demonstrated savings and value back to the organisation. Their managers provided mentoring and support, which made it easy for participants to share their learning in a written report and a presentation to their cohort and senior management. There was a genuine value-add to City Care from the practical activities participants included to achieve their qualification”.
Marcus Waters City Care’s HR and OD Manager also commented on the programme, “Our supervisors are busy practical people, so it was important they could quickly see how the training would help them in their work situations. NZIML really supported our leaders to translate the learning into effective leadership skills”.
It was a programme praised for its effectiveness and value, as it was strongly connected with the work of those involved, who benefitted from skills and techniques they could immediately use.
A nationally recognised qualification developed by NZIML, Skills and City Care provided employees of City Care with a gratifying experience as well as the opportunity to become a highly qualified asset to their organisation.
Skills is proud to have been part of such a successful three-way partnership, and have no doubt that City Care will continue to thrive as a multi-faceted organisation, maintaining New Zealand’s roads, traffic, trees and more.