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Get ahead, take a course

07.09.07 Caroline Horn

A training course can help to ensure companies and individuals have the skills they need to succeed. The Bookseller goes back to school.

Short, professional courses are often marketed as the quickest way to progress up the career ladder and a variety are tailored specifically for publishing, from sales and copy-editing to senior management skills. But how effective can a few days’ training be in boosting one’s career?

Karen O’Brien, Hachette Livre training officer, says tailored courses are a valuable way to develop skills and knowledge. “In general, most people don’t have the time or opportunity to develop new skills on the job,” she says. And further education may not be the best solution for acquiring skills in specific areas such as financial awareness or communication.

Francesca Naish, a project editor at Hodder Education, has attended a number of training courses including communication skills, and says that these have helped her to address everyday challenges in the most effective way. “Most importantly, they have also given me much more confidence in my work.”

Avoid mistakes
Courses that help to develop specific skills are those that most newcomers to editing or sales will attend to learn the basics. Training at this level is offered by a range of companies including the Publishing Training Centre (PTC), whose editorial courses include copy-editing and proofreading, while other providers such as Imago offer production-based training.

Adequate training will help individuals and companies to avoid costly mistakes, Cherry Jacquet, Imago production director, says. “People can, and do, learn to avoid mistakes as they develop—but on a structured course they will be able to learn from other people’s knowledge rather than from bitter experience.” Courses covering such topics as safety
legislation and digital production also help to keep people’s skills up to date with industry developments.

Once the basic skills are under their belt, those in their twenties and thirties should build the professional skills they need to operate in a corporate climate, says Alan Nelson, managing director of Nelson Croom. “Training is not just about job skills and competencies, but about people’s interpersonal and management skills. People need to know how to contribute effectively to meetings and how best to manage business developments. Otherwise they could find that they are left out of meetings or the decision-making process.”

People skills
Professional courses can help management to develop operational skills—for example, financial or strategic planning—as well as skills in managing people, something that is often assumed to be self-taught.

DeepEnd Training, which was set up to support young managers who find themselves in at the deep end, helps professionals to develop. Some courses include an inhouse project, enabling individuals to learn skills that will take them to the next level of management.

Karen Hillmansen, BPP Learning Media production director, says the right course can be life-changing. “I did a course in leadership at the PTC. At that point I had been in management at a different company for 18 months, but I became a much better manager as a result of the course.”

She says the financial investment was worth it. “I wish I had done the course earlier. It showed me that I had been doing stupid things without knowing why. I found it invaluable.”

Company and individual
Rachel Stock, Random House human resources director, says companies also need to ensure that professional courses work for the organisation as well as individuals. Random House offers employees a comprehensive range of courses from negotiation and presentation skills to more publishing-specific training. “We tend to use external providers, and take a lot of care in selecting them, making sure that they know what we want from the course,” she says.

PTC is among the providers that have seen a shift towards inhouse, bespoke training. “We are asked to design courses covering all areas of management, from personal development to leadership, as well as traditional publishing skills,” John Whitley, PTC chief executive, says. “This way, companies ensure that a course will match its needs, and that individuals will benefit from taking it.

 

COURSE PROVIDERS AT A GLAnCE

DeepEnd Training
Offers customised courses aimed at the publishing industry including Managing Editorial Projects, Changing Publishing Processes and Getting the Best from Authors and Editors.

Imago 
This production house offers a range of production-related courses including Product Safety, InDesign, Book Production and QuarkXpress as well as a number of bespoke courses.

Nelson Croom 
The training organisation offers publishing courses that include An Introduction to Publishing and Developing Authors, as well as more general courses in management and business skills. Bespoke courses available.

Oxford Brookes University: Oxford International Centre  for Publishing Studies
Provides short courses for those already working in publishing, including production-related courses (Photoshop, InDesign) and publishing-specific courses such as Publishing Finance and Copyright Contracts.

Publishing Training Centre
The centre offers short, classroom- based courses teaching editorial, software, production, marketing and management courses as well as bespoke training.

Marketability 
The consultancy offers training in editorial, marketing and publicity.

Caroline Horn job training

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