Resident shareholder/partners more than oversee management of the APT group of companies; there is direct participation at every level. Individuals at each unit at APT are focused on providing reliable, high caliber HR counsel and performance. APT’s hands- on deliverables are implemented by more than 60 can do pros and under the informed leadership and support of our CEO and ten heads of departments who are responsible to her. Awareness of what each department is doing and what is projected or actually already in the pipeline is expected. We have 65 current clients and surely key as well, we continue to grow, having added 12 new corporate customers just in the past half year including a multi- year assignment to work with an aggregate of 300 university students, under the guidance of the EU and UNESCO.
This article will highlight one of our integral products and a number of related services. APT’s training & development activity and related work is performed by an especially active department. We use three in- house conference rooms, each equipped with overhead projectors, screens and appropriate furniture. The facilities are capable in aggregate to conduct exercises for 50 or more; moreover, we have the ability to hold three simultaneous, distinct sessions, some of which are held on weekends or evenings. We use fifteen trainers and at times bring in instructors with a specific syllabus appropriate to the class.
The range of courses is comprehensive and includes, leadership sessions, more basic courses on how to comport oneself, how to dress, to relate within a business environment, ones on creativity & problem solving, on making effective presentations, how to be persuasive, dealing differently depending on nationality, language courses, and a range of train the trainer seminars. Over 100 distinct courses are delivered and new subjects are regularly prepared.
Most trainers are board certified by the ANC National Authority for Qualification and 16 career counselors have been trained and certified by the Global Career Development Facilitators program. We make use of a broad range of Lominger support material, maintain a continually expanding library for a client, now including nearly 2000 books, many of which were acquired following suggestions by employees. We have a conflict resolution unit, have a full-time psychologist on staff, cooperate fully with a separate unit at APT that structures and implements team building events and exercises for as small as ten and as large as 1,400 participants. We video presentations for later reference by us and by the employee, we founded and continue to be engaged in and support a chapter of TOASTMASTER’s Intl where members make addresses in English.
Over the past 12 months we have trained 824, principally employees of our clients but including a growing number of individuals who seek to become licensed/certified trainers on successful completion of a train the trainers program.
Without search & selection, hiring activity, IT support, outsourcing and employee leasing, APT’s personnel development activity could stand on its own, and very successfully. But integrated into a comprehensive palette of HR resources, the APT group is a complete HR provider, wide in scope.
For sure contents of this article may well be self-serving but more generally I wish to impart something further. Training develops the participant. It is a continual effort the outcome being a more self- assured, better prepared, better grounded individual. And more than likely, having had its benefits that employee is a better asset to his or her employer- a win-win, for employer and employee.