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48% of North West digital community cite management skills as a barrier to growth

Manchester Digital, the digital trade association in the North West, has revealed that almost half of those attending its CPD training courses this year have signed up to improve their managerial skills.

The 2014 Skills Audit, published by Manchester Digital showed that affordable CPD was much in demand from members with many complaining about having to travel to London to attend costly yet necessary courses. Manchester Digital’s new training courses have been incredibly popular and have been based around specific requests from businesses. The biggest demand from the digital sector has been for management and leadership skills.

The management skills session was attended by 48 per cent of the 145 people that attended its training courses this year. This is in contrast to the analytics course that one might expect to be the most in-demand for digital businesses, of which just 8 per cent of people attended.

The popularity of the management training may be attributed to the high volume of digital businesses being set up by younger people, often as graduates from university. In many cases young entrepreneurs don’t have experience in management, and therefore lack the skills to manage staff once their team and business grows.

Managing director of Manchester Digital, Katie Gallagher, said: “We have been pleasantly surprised by how many of our members are signing up for our range of training sessions and in particular, the popularity of the management skills course.

“It’s not unusual for digital businesses to grow rapidly, and therefore training in management is becoming crucial as more people are recruited into a business.

“At Manchester Digital we have created a training programme that can’t be matched on price or flexibility anywhere in the region, as we continue to support the development and growth of the North West’s digital industry.”

Stephen Craven, head of marketing at UK app design agency, Appitized, recently attended the Manchester Digital management course: “Overall, I found the trainers knowledge really insightful. My main aim was to get some further insights, ideas and validation about industry standard processes for management and planning. Those aims were definitely met. “I took a lot from the session and my management approach is stronger as a result. As a business grows, it’s important to have your management technique alongside it, this course certainly showed me how to build upon the skills I have and apply them within the workplace.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by PR Agency One .