Practical Support Needed to Sharpen Welsh Management

Wales must give higher priority to the development of management skills if it wants to compete effectively in the future, Wales Management Council Chairman Ian Rees has warned.

Writing in the introduction to the Council's annual report published this week, he argued that the Welsh Assembly Government, ELWa and the WDA had all committed themselves in principle to support the development of better management skills in Wales.

But he maintained that this had not been matched by the allocation of funds to implement the recommendations of the Council's "Agenda for Action," published in 2003.

This document outlined a wide range of measures designed to raise awareness of the need for better management, to help businesses and individual managers assess their own skill needs, to expand the availability in Wales of relevant management skills development and help managers to access that support.

Mr Rees, who also runs a Swansea based technology business and chairs ELWa's Leadership and Management Group, argued that much progress had been made "at a strategic level" in pursuing these recommendations.

But he added: "This has not yet been translated into meaningful progress so far as managers on the ground are concerned.

"It will not be possible to make a significant difference to management and leadership capability until this area is accorded high priority. This will need some firm decisions by policy makers, because maintaining the status quo will not achieve the desired result."

Mr Rees added: "Considerable resources are now being allocated to management and leadership development to help drive the regional economies elsewhere in the UK. Managers in Wales require comparable support to enable them to develop both their capability and a competitive edge for the Welsh economy."

Wales Management Council is an employer-led body, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, to promote better management in Wales through a variety of channels, working with public agencies and a range of professional groups representing businesses and individual managers.

Over the past year the Council has published a series of reports on the state of management in Wales and organised initiatives designed to improve managers' access to relevant training and skills development.

The body also encouraged the spread of good practice through the launch projects such as the "Best Managed Workplaces in Wales" study carried out in association with the Business School at Bangor University. This identified and analysed ten top organisations in terms of the quality of their management.

Further information from Marianna Marks 029 2048 8778