March 20, 2020
6 Tips For Studying Online
Online learning has become a great way for busy professionals to study whilst balancing a busy professional and family life…but, as I’ve learnt recently, it’s not without its challenges. First, a bit of background. A couple of years ago I studied for a professional marketing qualification through the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK, delivered via distance / online learning. Now switch to my professional life, I am the General Manager for the ICCP and also Operations Director for Claims Class - the ICCP's training partner. My role at the ICCP involves supporting our members and helping Associate members to develop their skills and expertise as a claims practitioner so that they can attain full membership. We have various initiatives to support this, including our mentoring programme, monthly CPD webinars and routes to membership through training. My role at Claims Class includes management of our course portfolio and students. So, between both professional roles, I have a…
October 21, 2019
Explaining The Role Of The Contract Professional
During my 10-year career lots of people have asked me about my role as a contract professional. What do you do? What is the role of a contract manager? And rarely have I seen a person being able to explain the role of contract managers. Even contract professionals themselves have the same question about their role. Tim Cummins for example, the President of IACCM says in an article in 2018: “I am amazed at how many people want an answer to this question [What is the role of a contract manager?]. More than 350,000 have read my blog on this particular subject. Is it because they don’t know the answer, or perhaps want reassurance that they are doing the right things?”.[i] So, why is it so difficult for people to understand what contract professionals do? And why is it so hard for us to explain our role to other people? In my opinion, there are six reasons. 1. There aren’t many university programs for contract professionals University degrees that have a direct route to a professional role…
March 12, 2019
Create Your Own Knowledge Centre
As part of the ICCP's initiative to create a private Member's Area with downloadable articles and papers on contract and claims topics, I have been sorting through information that I have collected over the years. Whilst doing this, it struck me that the amount of information I have gathered is not only huge, but it has become an extremely useful tool for my work. I started doing this in a small way by scanning articles in professional magazines that I found interesting, or that contained useful information and filing them in an ‘information’ folder on my computer. I also filed course notes from seminars and conferences in the same place, as well as various information and articles that I had dug up in the internet whilst researching a particular subject. Realising that over time our memories fade, I also filed work away that I had produced myself which could potentially become useful in the future. The folder eventually became so full of information that I had to set up some sort of…