5 Awesome Reasons Why You Should Take a Management Course

Management jobs score highly when it comes to earning potential, job satisfaction and the number of vacancies available. In fact, seven of Glassdoor’s top ten jobs of 2019 were management roles. Interested in pursuing this career path? Then we recommend taking an accredited course.

There are plenty of reasons why it’s worth signing up for a management course, but if you’re not convinced, keep reading as we take a look at five key benefits.

While it’s perfectly possible to work your way up into a management post, gaining a relevant qualification should speed up the process. This is because courses generally cover many of the practical skills you’ll need to become an effective manager. These include interviewing skills, team-building skills, the ability to give feedback and the ability to delegate.

Studying management will also enable you to gain a theoretical understanding of the different management principles and models. You’ll learn how to apply these to situations you might encounter at work, and you’ll discover which management style works for you and your team. All of this extra knowledge will give you a strong foundation to build your career on.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) are the best-known management training providers. You can study their qualifications through a range of approved partners including ICS Learn, Acudemy and Next Level Impact.

Both the CMI and the ILM offer qualifications to suit every stage of your management career.

Whether you choose to study with the CMI or the ILM partly depends on your preferred learning style. While the CMI’s qualifications have an academic focus and cover topics in more depth, the ILM provides courses with a more vocational, competency-based focus. Both organisations offer student membership, which gives you access to valuable research, learning materials and networking opportunities.

An alternative route to becoming qualified is to apply for an undergraduate degree. Higher education is a particularly good option if you’re keen to apply for a graduate training scheme or a master’s degree, such as Northumbria University’s part-time MSc in Strategic Leadership.

According to the CMI, only one in five managers have recognised management qualifications, so it’s not surprising that over 80% of managers say that studying management has resulted in increased professional recognition. Gaining a relevant qualification also shows employers that you have up-to-date knowledge of how to be an effective manager.

Increased professional recognition often leads to increased earning potential, and you’ll be glad to know that managers with professional qualifications earn on average £152,000 more over the course of their careers.

The CMI and ILM offer qualifications in a wide range of areas including team-leading, strategic management, management and leadership. The CMI even offers sector-specific qualifications for the armed forces, the healthcare industry and the police.

You’ll also have access to specialist qualifications if you choose to study with the ILM. These cover areas including operations management, sales management, waste management and facilities management. In addition, the ILM allows you to tailor your studies to meet your requirements.

Some areas of management you can specialise in are:

Both the ILM and the CMI offer several flexible study options. These include:

There’s also plenty of flexibility in terms of time commitment, so you can choose to develop your management skills at your own pace. At every level, both the CMI and the ILM offer awards (which take 1-3 months), certificates (3-6 months) and diplomas (up to a year).