Teams from up to 100 colleges are expected to take part in five-day events running through to March 2001 after the agency won a Further Education Funding Council contract.

The programme, which will be run jointly with the consultancy Hay McBer, is designed to look at how managers operate collectively and improve their effectiveness as a team. It will be mapped against draft occupational standards for managers produced by the Further Education National Training Organisation. This follows the completion by Fento of a national framework for training senior managers.

The first module, lasting two days, includes assessment of a team’s development needs. A second two-day module covers team effectiveness and wll look at issues including leadership style and the organisational climate. Managers will have six months to put what they have learnt into action before a third one-day module, which will track changes that have taken place in their college.

Graham Peeke, director of professional and organisation development at Feda, said: “We will be looking at the effect the senior management team has on the climate created in the college and how that impacts on the effectiveness of the college.”

Colleges will pay pound;15,800 for a programme for their senior team, pound;5,000 of which can be reclaimed from the FEFC’s standards fund. A programme for two or three colleges will cost pound;17,200. This cuts the net bill per college (excluding the standards fund contribution) to either pound;3,600 (for a two-college event) or pound;733 (where three colleges are involved).