ABSTRACT
The chapter provides evidence of the successful application of a range of human resource management techniques used in the training of industrial managers to education. The author describes a series of company organised workshops for headteachers on the theme of managing change, which are a joint initiative of Rank Xerox and Understanding British Industry (UBI). He gives examples of the material used, and personal testimony of headteachers involved regarding the success of the initiative and perceived appropriateness of the work to the training experience back in the school environment. The initiatives described began in the late 1970s, when the author discovered that few opportunities existed for senior managers in schools to acquire basic management skills as part of their own career development; and that at that point education had apparently failed to devise procedures for identifying the right people for promotion or to provide appropriate training. The chapter establishes a useful context, not only for the increasing possibilities of industry-education collaboration in the 1980s and beyond but also for the discussion by Joan Dean in Chapter 2 on the responsibility of the LEA for promoting staff development.
