“If it would be possible, I would like to aplly for a follow-up programme...” this is how Ing. Pavel Kapler, Ph.D, the employee of Department of Geography of the Faculty of Science MU – long time manager and Chief Logistics Officer of reasearch programme CARP (Czech Antarctic Research Programme) spoke about his attendance in developing program Talent and Manager. By the following lines we clossely present his role of attendant of deeloping programms of Competence Developmnet Centre (CERPEK).
"I found out about the development programmes through a mass email to employees and signed up online on the CERPEK website. Then I found out from my superior's email that it was supposed to go through him; he was somewhat offended at the time that he was bypassed on this, but we explained everything, and my superior supported my participation in the training program. HR took care of the rest." Currently, the Faculty of Science of MU has newly covered the Dean´s Directive - Employee Education and Development and the Development Specialist position at the Faculty of Science of MU. Despite these minor misunderstandings, however, everything was arranged in such a way that participation in the programme was not hindered.
The development programmes implemented by CERPEK have been in high demand among employees for a long time, and demand continues to exceed supply. However, motivation is no longer of an external nature, and no one participates in training as a "punishment". The personal need to develop and acquire new skills relevant to the job comes first. This was no different for Mr. Kapler. "My main motive was to make new contacts and strengthen interfaculty cooperation by getting to know colleagues in interesting/key positions at MU, and the second most important was to develop my management skills further." Motivation is also linked to the participants' personal expectations from the programme, which Mr. Kapler considers fulfilled in his case. However, if this is not the case in some cases, thanks to the feedback of all participants, we can continue to work with CERPEK to improve the content and make the selection of individual participants more targeted on our side. Nominations are made continuously in collaboration with the direct superiors. The next challenge will be individual interviews to ascertain the real need and relevance of participation in the programme.
As far as the content of the programmes is concerned, the trainers need to meet a relatively broad portfolio of needs of the individual participants and help develop different management skills. Mr. Kapler is optimistic about this demanding requirement. He adds: "...the lecturers tried to meet the needs of all participants, even though there was sometimes no time for some specific assignments for various reasons". In general, they evaluate the completion of the whole programme as very beneficial. Together with other participants, they strongly recommend other interested parties to take advantage of the development programmes and offer separate workshops prepared by CERPEK for academics and non-academics.
Transferable skills acquired from development programmes are also becoming more important in excellent field programmes. For example, the one that takes place annually in Antarctica, from which another successful expedition has returned relatively recently. "There was a lot in both courses (Talent and Manager) that applied to expedition management... We have successfully integrated some of the techniques from these courses into our standard procedures and mandatory pre-expedition training for participants in Antarctic expeditions, so perhaps because of that and good preparation, we didn't have a crisis this year."
We believe that the skills and knowledge that the development programme graduates have acquired will help them take their daily work to the next level, and the tools they have learned will make their work more efficient. If you, too, are interested in taking your knowledge and competencies further, do not hesitate to contact the Faculty Coordinator - Development and Education Specialist, Mgr. Elišku Sobotkovou.
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