2 Responses

1. first, decide what you really want.

   Dear Basak

   You haven’t specified what you mean by "academy", there are numerous differeing models used by different organisations.

   For instance, I do quite a bitof work in the Motor industry and almost all the manufacturers have an ‘academy’ for their dealership networks.  That said they are all different in different ways:

   ~some provide only technical training that is accredited and some provide wider levels of training

   ~some are funded entirely by the manufacturer, some  are funded by a per capita levy on the dealerships and some are funded entirely by an internal sales model

   ~some only provide face to face training and some provide virtual classrooms and e-learning as well

   ~some provide online support toolkits and some don’t

   ~some offer an ‘outreach’ service of on-site visits for diagnstic and delivery purposes and some don’t.

   ~some operate from a suite of rooms in the corporate head office, some are outsourced to 3rd party suppliers and some have their own stand alone site.  Of the latter some have a beautiful country house location and some are modern buildings on trading estates.

   I don’t know if this helps

   Rus Slater

   http://www.coach-and-courses.com

2. Academy

   Hi Basak,

   I was in a similar position to you 4 years ago when I set up the training function for my current organisation. My best piece of advide would be to be an effective business partner. The first step is to make sure you know who the key stakeholders are and what it is they want. Don’t be afraid to ask very straight-to-thepoint questions like "exactly what is it you want from the academy". Without this you will not know if you are heading in the right direction. If you are new to the business you should quickly build a network of people from all areas who can give you great tips and practical advice.

   Additionally make sure you have policy and procedures in place because at some point you will be audited. Your policy should clearly state what it is you are aiming to achieve, how you will do it and who will do what.

   Finally, evaluate the effectiveness of what you do. At some point, somebody will ask you to prove your worth. There are some great tips on TZ for this or I could send you a template I use to help with this.

   I hope some of this helps – there is much more to know which can’t all be put in here.

   Regards,

   Rich