Croda

Just add accreditation: Croda’s new blend of staff development

Global chemicals company Croda wanted to enhance their New Manager Development Programme and looked to us to help them achieve it.

By turning the programme into an accredited qualification, we added a valuable ingredient to the mix: university credits. The programme’s popularity has since soared and Croda has scooped a national training award.

The challenge

Croda already had a significant number of training and development opportunities in place, including its New Manager Development Programme.

This course helps new managers learn new skills and apply them to the workplace. The company wanted to find ways of adding value to the existing programme while recognising and retaining its existing strengths.

The solution

Following discussions, we felt the most appropriate way to strengthen this offer was to accredit the existing programme, turning it into a recognised university qualification which would be perceived by employees as more valuable.

Our accreditation process judged that the course should be a University Diploma – roughly one-sixth of a BA or BSc (Hons) degree – and so we translated the existing eight modules into two higher education level 5 modules.

Part of this process involved making sure the assessment methods were balanced and relevant.

We also put in place a system enabling those who had already completed the programme to work towards the new, accredited qualification.