e.com institute holdings has launched a new training business, the SUSA Training Institute, which was derived from then following words:
Sharpen: To sharpen the understanding and knowledge base through technical training.
Unravel: To free from complication or difficulty through mentoring and coaching. Sanction: To ratify or confirm the requirement through analysis awareness to confirm the knowledge base through reviews.
These words describe the methodology that the SUSA Institute uses in providing businesses with training that is specific to their needs and delivers more than what often limited classroom sessions can.
The new company is headed up by Lenn van Niekerk, who will drive the new business and facilitate training.
Says van Niekerk: "The SUSA Institute forms a key component of e.com institute's core focus - performance. Training and skills transfer assists to increase performance within an organisation, allowing staff to be more effective and efficient. However, to reach this goal, much more than basic training is required. We at the SUSA Institute take a holistic approach to training and do things a little differently in order to raise the performance bar in a business."
Van Niekerk feels training should be elevated in status within organisations, as the South African market is currently lacking in skills, especially information communication technology (ICT) skills.
He adds: "South Africa also needs to enhance its management skills and the SUSA Institute is addressing this need too. Businesses often fail due to poor management and we have recognised the need to deliver training to this particular level within businesses."
The SUSA Institute offers business management, performance management, financials for non-financial people, project management and ICT training, including business intelligence (BI), data warehousing, application development and integration. The company is also in the process of finalising its training material to cater for the training of non-executive directors.
The SUSA Institute has a proven four-stage methodology of which technical training forms one component. The company completes a full analysis and establishes the strategic intent of the organisation. This is done through a top down approach that targets executives first.
Explains van Niekerk: "We look at the level of management skills that are featured at the top layer in the organisation and asses how they interpret the strategic intent of the organisation. The analysis then filters down to the lower levels in the organisation and their experience of the interpretation is assessed. This gives us a good indication of what is lacking from a management perspective and what skills are required to rectify this."
Kirkpatrick's four-level assessment model for training is applied and the focus is on the level three and four assessments, which deal with behaviour and results.
Says van Niekerk: "We visualised the gap: our unique customer-specific dashboard design enables individuals and executives to view incremental improvements toward elimination of the skills gap. This has led the SUSA Institute to offer classroom training, which incorporates a 'hands-on' approach, 'on the job' mentoring/coaching and a continuous process of reviewing the delegates' performance."
He adds: "Classroom training is just one component of the learning experience. This is why the mentoring/coaching and continuous evaluation is so crucial.
"This holistic approach to training provides our customers with staff that have the level of competencies they need and can apply them on a daily basis, contributing significantly to the overall performance of an employee and the organisation."
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