Woking low dour;
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for the high ups
The British Transport Staff College has an international reputation and deserves to play a more significant role than that of a club
SENIOR transport managers, especially those working in the public sector of transport, have known about the British Transport Staff College for many years. A fair number of the top decision-makers in transport have been students at Woking.
The College is internationally known; seven members of the current general management course (53 courses held to date) come from overseas. There are 36 students on each general management course, so nearly 2000 men — not many women — have profited from a spell at Woking.
To summarise what the College does it is, I think, most notable for its courses lasting 11 weeks for what are termed "mid-careermanagers. By giving a training/development -boost" to men and women thought by their companies to be high flyers there is some assurance that most of them will make top management material.
The College also provides a senior course for people already engaged at the policy-making level. This lasts for four weeks and as a rule older people, say over 45, will attend. The average age of the mid-career courses is some ten years younger.
Education and training, like everything else, cannot insulate itself from inflation. The Woking courses are expensive: £3,350
the cost of the 11-week midcareer course which runs from January 13 to March 28, 1980; the month's course for -top dogs" will set back sponsoring firms by £1,800, and both sets of fees exclude VAT. Bearing in mind the loss of trained staff while at Woking — their normal functions must be undertaken by others — the effective cost of studies at Woking is doubled.
In passing I must refer to a number of shorter courses: a week's course in Marketing in Transport and Distribution, Industrial Relations, or Physical, Distribution Management costs £310, plus VAT. You can brush' up on Finance and Accounting in a four-day residential course for £300, plus VAT.
Now, what do the sponsoring firms, and the students, get for their money? Can any company, let alone those publicly owned, justify expenditure of this order of magnitude in order to improve the quality of management?
I think the answer is bound to be yes. To put matters in perspective, consider the cost to a large company of an unnecessary labour dispute. If attendance at Woking reduced, even marginally, the risk of a strike, or if a work-force was motivated to give consistently higher service-standards through better, perhaps more inspired, management, then a sponsoring company would not be wasting its money.
I realise that my "ifs" are not readily provable, but BTSC Woking has flourished since 1959 and it has generated a powerful head of steam in 20 years' service to transport.
The College describes itself as an independent non-profitmaking organisation founded to: provide training for higher management. It mixes general management training with transport specialisation and lays considerable stress on developing individual strengths, not least leadership qualities.
Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a. pronounced -staff college" feeling at Woking. At one time the splendid building was used as the staff college for British Rail, Southern Region. Some of the directing staff, including Gordon Beard, the principal, held senior ranks in the Army, or are ex-railwaymen. The present chairman of British Railways Board, Sir Peter Parker, chairs the governing body, though Sir Peter made his reputation as a dynamic manager long before he was tempted to deploy his skills on
the bed of nails at Marylebone Road.
Currently, the governing body reflects surface transport; British Railways, London Transport, National Bus Company, British Transport Docks Board, National Ports Council, National Freight Corporation, the Scottish Transport Group and West Yorkshire PTE. Sir Richard Way, now an academic, but a onetime civil service permanent secretary and former Chairman of London Transport, is a goiternor. J. R. LeFevre, joint managing director, United Transport Overseas, has the distinction of being the only private enterprise spokesman on the Board.
The 12 sponsors who have agreed to support the College over a period of years include four PTEs (Glasgow, Manchester, South and West Yorkshire and London Transport), United Transport Overseas Ltd is a sponsor, too. There would be advantage to the private sector of transport if the public/private "mix" was more equal and I gather that when some mooted extensions to the College have been made there may be a more representative group of sponsors In effect, sponsors reserve bedrooms for the staff nominated to attend. On a tour round the College I was told that a certain bedroom had always been reserved for London Transport. Of course, it is only fair to stress that the sponsorship idea, which takes care of the on-going maintenance of the college, does not prevent, and has not prevented, a wide variety of students from transport companies of all kinds, from over 50 overseas countries and from Britain, attending Woking.
Just to give an idea of the many firms who have sent managers to Woking, here are a few at random: Amey Roadstone Corporation, the Calor Group, Convoys Ltd, Esso
Petroleum, Ford Motor Cor pany, Key Markets, MAT Iran port, the Plessey Compan RT1TB, J. Sainsbury, SPD Lt, Wincanton Transport ar others.
The benefits students obta from the broad mix of pa ticipants which is contrived I the College organisers ought speak for itself. Road transpo people need no telling of tlbenefits of trade "contacts; when you've lived with cone; gues from various transpo sectors for several weeks you" made what amounts to ol school chums in middle life.
You would expect that a fu time lecturing staff at the Cc lege are well qualified not on academically but also throu practical transport experienc and this is so. But Woking dra upon the experience of scores outside experts, politician economists, lawyers, banker trade unionists, consultant senior civil servants and tran port industry leaders.
It is this ability to call seasoned men and women affairs, who know how gover ment and the wider econo works, that gives Woking t edge over rival establishmen — if there are any such — ternationally.
The mid-career 11-we course includes a week's forei tour visiting transport an related establishments — ev banks! Bankers have a wi knowlege of industry and co merce and it is necessary f aspiring top managers to und stand the workings of the fina cial mind. The 1980 Woki students hope to visit t Netherlands, Austria and Sw zerland.
About two thirds of the ml career course is devoted general management subject the rest being spent on studi of "the transport environment which the senior transpo manager of the future will ha to work and which he will help create". The College has its o
dvanced computer equipment ihich can support four proramme languages, with an ex3nsive library of programmes. lence, students can use cornuter terminals to analyseuantitative aspects of business roblems.
Whether the computer exertise could predict the reacon of a road haulier's customer ) a swingeing rate increase, or ssess such imponderables as a roductivity scheme, is a moot oint. No doubt many business ecisions are helped by cornuters though being an old luare, and a belt-and-braces tan, I like to think that transport !heels would still turn if all Dmputers went on the blink for x months.
One of the interesting feaJres of BTSC is that old :udents sometimes return as 3conded lecturers, I enjoyed leeting John Meara, director of le marketing course, now 3conded for three years from reightliners Ltd — he formerly as manager of the Nottingham. trminal. John is a specialist on )mmunications and he showed le with justifiable pride some of le new equipment he uses, ich as the Sony TV recording t.
Every mid-career student takes a formal TV recording 3rly in the course which, when layed back, sorts out the men from the boys.
Philip Millard, director of the Finance and Accounting Course, and the senior director of studies, says the aim of Woking is to search for conlinual improvement.' Through the years the course content changes: as he says, if there is a five per cent change in each course, in 20 courses you have a new ball game.
The Woking approach is so professional and thorough that it inspires me to envy those lucky enough to attend the College, although the whole of British transport must derive benefit in quite unquantifiable fashion I strongly feel that many lectures and presentations should be taped, at least for sound, and made available to less fortunate student gatherings.
In the nature of things I doubt if this will happen; the College would not want every confidential, frank, exchange of views by visiting experts to be retailed throughout the industry.
But using the -match stick" economics once commended by Sir Alec Douglas Home, assuming transport and distribution employs two million people I reckon at least 20,000 British transport managers, not counting those overseas, could profit from even a short distillation of Woking expertise. With
under 200 students at major courses each year my arithmetic suggest that one hundred years would elapse before we all become slightly tipsy with the Woking brew.
If you agree with me that transport's problems deserve the thorough treatment they get at Woking you will wish to see the College effectively -bugged" so that more of Lis can share in the wisdom.
Otherwise, unless all students leaving Woking are highly motivated communicators, the course merely provides virtually automatic translation to higher management. It deserves a more significant role than to be a pleasant club for those who have arrived, more or less, at the top.
I was lucky to be able to attend an open day at Woking attended by representatives of sponsoring bodies. A number of those who were sent to "weigh" the value of the present courses now on offer were previous students of the College. It was very evident that they were pleased to be back on familiar ground.
Gordon Beard, the principal, in .a short talk said that all courses were initiated by the managing body. This ensured that sponsors knew in advance what was planned and it encouraged transport industry sup Port Already, two courses ha been run for the World Bank at it would certainly be good I British transport if the Wokil establishment could build its up to an indisputable position leadership in transport studiE in effect it could be to transp( what the Harvard Busine School is to manageme . education.
Case studies form much the General Manageme Course, with many of the dirE ting staff seconded from trar port and distribution uncle takings. Teaching the studen to project their personality seen as crucially important ar there is no question in my mir that this is helped by the rant and depth of the studies.
At the end of the 11-we course a personal confident report is prepared by the Coll& for employers. This is a w. produced report based on t consensus of many people, it seen as infinitely better than phone conversation between company personnel chief al the College principal, or ti
.director of studies. TI
students, I gather, have a go( idea of the content of the repc to be made about them; son organisations, in fact, show tl report to the returning student
Philip Millard, the Wokir director of studies, said the was a greater emphasis on `sk rather than knowledge; skill using acquired knowledf being the key point. The wi( range of case studies was u dated periodically. And a general approach was pa ticipative; students learnE about negotiations, inte viewing, group dynamics, cor outer work in transport and ho to see a major project through • completion. The study tour, to focused on learning experienci I asked the assembled pan of college leaders what ha pened to the Woking studen ultimately. Some 30 per cent c beck to their old jobs; tlmajority get promotion by tys or three grades. But woul many of the students have g, promotion anyway? The rep from the principal: "We'N, helped''.
The Woking college is ful alive to the need for publicit There has been an open day • boost patronage at Edinburc. and one is planned next Marc at Manchester. However goc you are you must tell the wor about it!