Learning and Development Manager Jobs
All good companies base their HR strategy around retaining and attracting the best talent, and a big part of this goal is their commitment to learning and development throughout the business. The best employees demand it, but there are sound business reasons for keeping L&D up to date. To prevent grand L&D strategies from fizzling out once they leave the board room, however, it’s essential that learning and development managers are appointed to ensure the strategies are put into action, hence the need for good learning and development managers.
Depending on the size of the company, the learning and development manager either reports to a director of L&D or the board in general and may have a degree of autonomy when it comes to designing and implementing strategies. The L&D manager is judged on how well she or he delivers the KPIs laid down by the organization, which usually revolve around talent retention and performance of the department they oversee. Learning and development management is a great step in the ladder towards directorship, as it can shine a light on the manager’s ability to interpret strategies and put them into action.
The skills required
While previous experience of learning and development management is often preferred, many companies consider experienced HR professionals who have dealt with all aspects of L&D, such as appraisals, examinations, assessments and personal development programmes and have put these into action for a busy company.
You should have a rounded set of skills on the current best practice in the field of learning and development gained through continuous learning on the back of some appropriate qualifications. An ability to demonstrate that you can manage people in a methodical and consistent manner is also required – for example you need to keep on top of qualifications that may expire and ensure they are re-sat and renewed as appropriate. Experience of working in the same field is also advantageous.
Learning and Development Manager Jobs in Newcastle-under-Lyme
The Staffordshire town of Newcastle-under-Lyme (not to be confused with Newcastle-upon-Tyne) adjoins the city of Stoke-on-Trent along all of its eastern edge; without looking at a boundary map it would be difficult to discern where one ends and the other begins. The town did have a similar industrial history to Stoke, namely pottery and porcelain manufacture, until the mid-1700s when it all but stopped, giving way to brick making, clothing, cotton milling, coal mining and engineering. Engineering and clothing manufacturing still dominate the town’s industries; many military and police uniforms are made here.
In the early 1900s, the Stoke area was an amalgamation of a number of moderately sized towns, chief among them Stoke, Hanley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Burslem, Fenton, Tunstall, Longton, Smallthorne, Kidsgrove, and Audley. A motion was put to parliament to amalgamate them all into one city in what was known as the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent. Newcastle-under-Lyme was the only one to reject the plan, partly because the others were heavily involved in the pottery industry and Newcastle no longer was. Newcastle’s opposition was recognised and so it came to be that the town now exists almost engulfed by Stoke-on-Trent.
With a population of about 75,000 and a huge regeneration effort recently being completed, Newcastle-under-Lyme has undergone something of a rebirth of late, after a few decades of gradual decline. We do see more Learning and Development Manager jobs appearing in the town, which is often indicative of renewed economic activity.
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Find L&D Manager Jobs with Cast UK
Some of the UK’s most exciting companies that are growing and changing are trying to find good learning and development managers to ensure their employees are up to speed on all aspects of their business. If you have experience in this area, you could be just the person they are looking for. We have great relationships with companies up and down the country because we have the details of hundreds of excellent HR professionals, and our consultants are skilled at matching the two together.
Cast UK can help you get your foot in the door of these companies so you can demonstrate to them why you should be their next learning and development manager. Call us today on 0333 121 3345 to get started.
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