By Gabriel Olawale
THE Institute of Management Consultants, IMC, Nigeria, recently trained and certified professionals at management levels in different fields.
Speaking during the exercise in Lagos, Director General of IMC, Prof. David Iornem, said the certification was the highest international qualification anyone could aspire to acquire, as it was issued by the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, The Netherlands.
According to him, IMC-Nigeria was one of the few bodies allowed to administer the qualification, having received the requisite training and accreditation to do so.
University students
Iornem explained that the training workshop and certification is open to skilled and experienced consultants from different fields.
“You need to imbibe and promote what we call competency model because for a consultant to be competent and do the job successfully, there are certain elements of knowledge area you have to pass. So this workshop provides such knowledge area so that we can get our consultants to operate in keeping with international council guideline.
“Acceptable members would normally possess a university degree or other professional qualifications, plus suitable experience in consultancy.”
Membership grades in which applicants are admitted depend on the length and nature of their experience in management consulting.
“While Fellow of IMC is for members who have a minimum of five years consulting experience or in managing large systems or anyone who is deemed by the council of the institute to have made outstanding contributions to the field of management consulting or management science. It can also be in economics, technology, or in any field of human endeavour directed towards the promotion of good management, world peace, national stability and economic progress,” the DG said.
At the end of the training, which focused on skills, code of ethics of management consultancy, client satisfaction and so on, participants were grouped into three for presentations. It was meant to assess what members of the class had learnt.
Each group was asked questions from ISO 20700 guidelines for management consultancy service, which they did justice to.
Iornem noted that the world was now a knowledge-based economy. He said that the training given to the experts was crucial to the growth of Nigeria, as the consultants would bring their knowledge to bear at their workplaces.