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Client‐based management qualifications have been a big growth area in the 1990s. However, doubts have been raised about their academic and pedagogic validity. This paper explores the issues, and reports on a survey of large employers in the UK. Evidence of further growth potential is reported. A consideration of the design and delivery issues leads to guidelines for quality assurance for these programmes. These guidelines help overcome the objections raised about client‐based management qualifications. A typology of course‐based management education and development programmes is also created.

The purpose of this research was first to determine the competencies mandatory of risk managers, and second, to consider the implications of such competencies in determining modules appropriate for inclusion in any prospective undergraduate qualification with specialisation in risk management.

A qualitative research approach was followed, involving academics teaching risk management in a focus group and making use of interactive qualitative analysis (IQA).

The competencies identified were business management skills, financial knowledge, an understanding of the risk management process, governance and compliance, people management and technical skills. These will be explained in greater detail in the paper.

The implications for teaching are that an undergraduate curriculum in risk management will have to combine majors such as business management, financial management, risk management, industrial psychology and communication. These majors need to be complemented by modules in governance and compliance management, as well as information and communication technology.

The implication for practice is that risk management professionals and members of the Institute of Risk Management of South Africa need to avail themselves to serve on an advisory board of academic departments offering risk management qualifications. Risk management is a developing science and requires inputs about research and the curriculation of qualifications.

The implication for public policy is that the South African Qualifications Authority and the Council for Higher Education should reconsider their requirements for designators (specialised qualifications). The implications for research are that IQA provides clarity on the knowledge and skills required to develop a competency-based qualification in risk management. Further research should benchmark qualifications and propose a curriculum for a bachelor’s degree in risk management.

The use of IQA is a novel way of ensuring rigour and objectivity in arriving at a description of the required knowledge, skills, values and attributes of risk managers. This paper will assist in the compilation of a new curriculum for an undergraduate qualification in risk management; thus, ensuring such qualification will provide a competency-based qualification that will meet the needs of the profession.

Takes as its starting‐point the need for new ways of approaching management development. Introduces the competence‐based model promoted by the Management Charter Initiative and outlines a conceptual framework for conceiving the value of qualifications. Distinguishes and explores notions of use and exchange value. Uses a case study based on interviews with 58 managers to examine perceptions on, and experiences of, a competence‐based management development programme. Discusses the wider implications of the findings and concludes that biographical information helps to explain individuals′ reactions to training and qualifications opportunities.

To examine the role of formal qualifications in the career development of contemporary hotel general managers in Scotland.

A questionnaire was used which provided a sound basis for comparing the opinions, performance and career paths of both formally qualified and unqualified general managers.

Key findings identified that formal qualifications were an integral part of career development. They facilitated career moves between companies and allowed prospective managers to “fast‐track” to general management status. Formal qualifications were considered particularly beneficial in developing those functional managerial skills required to succeed.

At this present time of change within the industry, the existing move towards a more business perspective in the role of hotel general manager may in fact be influencing the development of managers’ mid‐career. The actual importance today of food and beverage positions may be far less than it has been during the career development of those managers within the sample. If this proves to be the case, there may be a developing trend of managers entering from outside the industry, directly to general management positions. This poses implications for the seemingly “established” career path of hotel general manager through food and beverage functions and deputy/assistant managerial positions.

The conclusions may also present implications for educationists trying to meet the needs of the industry in developing effective managers and for individuals in the development of their careers.

This paper has the objective of identifying the different types of qualifications in auditor's reports of companies in Malta, the extent of multiple and repeated qualifications in such reports and any significant relationships between such main types of qualifications and firm‐specific variables.

The study in this small Mediterranean island is designed to investigate the auditor's reports of 419 companies in the period 1997/2000. This is also complemented by an analysis of 12 interviews held with audit partners in different practices.

Results show that 19.9 per cent of sampled companies had a qualified auditor's report. The most common type of qualification was that of limitation‐on‐scope found in small companies and issued by non‐Big Four audit firms. Small companies were also prone to going concern qualifications in view of their more common net liability situations. Disagreement‐with‐management qualifications were found to be more likely in larger companies and to be mostly issued by Big Four audit firms.

The methodology adopted by the study may also be used in similar future studies in other small states and further research could possibly be undertaken on the motivation behind the issuance of such qualifications.

The study concludes that Maltese companies, which are as yet all required to be audited irrespective of size, have an apparently high rate of audit qualifications and also that the auditor's reports of non‐Big Four audit firms are often deficient or even incompatible with the wording of the International Standards on Auditing.

Considers the development of an innovative award for first‐line managers. Points out that, unlike other first‐line management prog‐ rammes, it is an education‐based programme, full‐ or part‐time, placed in the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) framework; but, unlike other GNVQs, directed at mature candidates, including returners to education or employment, and those not yet in a job role that allows them to meet the NVQ criteria. Explains that the qualification aims to meet gaps in the current MCI standards; and, as a GNVQ, to provide the knowledge base and progression seen as weaknesses of NVQs, as well as progression on to NVQs. States that the qualification is perceived as meeting real needs and a gap in the market; however, notes that take‐up of the pilot year has been disappointing. Emphasizes that the intention is to provide meaningful and practical training for a front‐line managerial role in an education context, but that only further evaluation of the pilot will determine the extent to which this has succeeded.

Explores the differences between two categories of in‐company management development programme: those that offer participants a nationally recognized qualification and those that are not assessed. The argument is made that certificating a programme will lead to different forms of experience and outcome for the participants and for the organization and believes that it is important for clients and providers to be aware of these differences when engaged in selecting, planning and running a management development programme if maximum benefit from the investment is to be gained. A tentative contingency theory is outlined.

This paper confirms the importance of the various aspects of public relations as necessary skills for senior managers, both in the profession and in organisations, and the need to raise the level of management skills among practitioners. It argues that a specialist MBA in public relations (PR) is not necessarily the most appropriate way of meeting those objectives and suggests that more needs to be done to encourage public relations and corporate communication practitioners to take part in general management education and to develop their professional knowledge and qualifications. At the same time, the business and management schools could make explicit the extent to which management education already covers areas of interest to practitioners in these fields and collaborate with the profession to develop qualifications, teaching programmes and materials.

New Zealand postgraduate library and information studies qualifications have undergone a process of continual revision since the first training school for librarians was established in 1946. This chapter begins with an overview of the history of postgraduate library studies qualifications in New Zealand. It continues with a discussion of the establishment of qualifications for record keepers (archivists and records managers), followed by a description of the most recent developments, which established a generic Master of Information Studies qualification, and the associated Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma of Information Studies. It concludes with a discussion of the various drivers for these changes, and the ways in which the relationships between the various professional associations and interest groups and the education providers have evolved.

In 1997 the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) officially launched the new management NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications), benchmarks which attempted to describe the work performed by British managers. This article is a review of those qualifications. It remembers some of the main problems associated with the original management NVQs and, drawing on some of the best theoretical and empirical accounts of managerial work, argues that the new qualifications have failed to live up to the MCI’s original promise, to assist the development and training of managers.