You can give a person the right tool and teach him how to use it, but he will still need support to reach an objective. Based on such a simple and straightforward notion, training takes on a much broader aspect.
"Nowadays, people are looking for something different in training," Mast International facilitator and coach Nigel Turner told The Sunday Times.
Mast International, a top training institution in the UK, has been at the forefront of training and development since 1971. With offices in Australia, Ireland, Singapore, Turkey and Botswana, Mast offers training in management, leadership, communication, selling, service, personal growth and organisational development.
Originally from Hampshire in the UK, Mr Turner has lived in Africa for the better part of 30 years. He is managing director of the Mast franchise in Botswana and is currently in Malta to conduct training for an international firm that services the UK.
"I think it's going to be a great relationship. The company is investing time and money in training its Maltese staff to reach a peak level of performance. We are working hand in hand, focusing mainly on 'soft skills' training, including interpersonal skills, as building empathy and rapport," Mr Turner explained.
"People don't usually acquire soft skills - the ability to communicate and motivate - from educational institutions. These skills are 'soft' not because they're easy but because they're intangible. Very often they are taken for granted."
In the UK, Mast International focuses largely on management and leadership skills for middle managers. "However, we are not a business school; we are not academics; we are practical, hands-on trainers. Practical training leads to practical outcomes. A person should walk away from one of our training programmes saying, 'I have learnt to perform a skill that I could not do before'."
Having a clear goal and a clear set of values to operate on is important for any company. Enough research has been done to suggest that those companies that have a clear set of principles tend to have more long-term success than those that don't.
"Walt Disney is one such example. The company has a simple statement of intent and a set of operating principles that include creativity, attention to detail and preserving the magic. This is how it operates. If you do this, it's hard to fail.
"Without a set of values there is no meaning to what you do. For most people, making money is not enough. The world of work has changed and people expect more. They want to feel satisfied and want to feel there's a future for them. A large part of management is about facilitating that," Mr Turner said.
From a feasibility study carried out with prospective clients last year, Mr Turner's feedback has been that customer service training in Malta is in great demand and that businesses are mostly services-orientated. "One of the key skills in customer service is establishing a rapport and empathising with people. Your product is your people, so they've got to want to work from the heart. So we do a lot of practical work on that. We try not to be too theoretical. Most people don't understand the psychology but are only interested in what they have to do to be successful."
Mr Turner, who found out about Malta through a friend from Botswana who moved here recently, believes there's a good opportunity for training on the island and hopes to set up shop here later this year. He also intends to relocate with his wife early next year.
Looking for pastures new, Mr Turner left the UK for Zimbabwe when the southern African country was becoming independent. This was when he became involved in training and qualified as an adult educator trainer, psycho-metric tester and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner. He worked for the Zimbabwean government for some time, training people to become civil servants, and left Zimbabwe for Botswana in 2001.
"Botswana, like Malta, is not a big market, but has a substantial number of organisations and services. Open courses are a good way for SMEs to train people because they're cost-effective. For larger organisations, in-house training is a preferred route," Mr Turner said.
Producing 34 million carats of diamonds every year, Botswana is a stable democracy and has a growing economy. Around the diamond industry is an infrastructure of secondary and tertiary industries. However, the country has a major HIV/AIDS problem which, among other things, impacts on productivity and talent management. The Government is also trying very hard to diversify the economy, since by the middle of this century, the diamond reserves will probably be exhausted.
"But Malta has a lot going for it. Once we set up here, we could use Malta as a springboard for training interventions in North Africa. It's easier to get to northern Africa through Malta than it is from southern Africa. This could create endless opportunities in countries still to be explored in terms of training, such as Libya and Cyprus. But our first objective is to set up here."
Open courses will be held on Thursday - 'Priority and time management; April 28 - 'Service excellence' and May 6-8 - 'Inspiring people to achieve results'. For more information, call 7922 2994, e-mail info@mastmalta.com or visit www.mastmalta.com.