The HR Observer is thrilled to report that the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Middle East Conference commenced and ended on a high note and was a resounding success. The Conference was organised by ATD, in cooperation with Informa Connect, and it was held on 13-14 June 2023 at The Ritz Carlton – Grand Canal, Al Maqta Area.
Undoubtedly one of the region’s most highly anticipated HR events, this learning and development opportunity included three certificate training programs that talent development managers, trainers, workplace learning professionals, performance consultants, instructional designers, and other talent development professionals take to earn continuing education units (CEU) or points and certificates from ATD.
The ATD is a professional membership group, the largest talent development organisation in the world. This association supports all professionals in charge of employee knowledge and skills development across all industries by sharing the latest learning and development trends and equipping them through talent development training programs, workshops and conferences.
The ATD certificate programs in the recently concluded ATD Middle East Conference were held on 12, 15 and 16 June 2023. They were available in two formats. Those already in Abu Dhabi for the Conference came at least one day earlier and stayed two days after to attend the programs in person. Those who couldn’t be physically present took them online.
Participants who attended online or onsite received their program certificate on the ATD Learning Platform after completing their selected course or courses.
The following were the three ATD certificate programs available during the ATD Middle East Conference in Abu Dhabi in June 2023.
1. Aligning Learning and TD Strategy to Business Objectives
Date: 12 June 2023 (Monday)
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:35 p.m.
Duration: 485 minutes (8 hrs 5 min)
Facilitator: Seema Menon
The Aligning Learning and Talent Development Strategy to Business Objectives workshop took place on 12 June.
This program equips participants with a strategic approach to developing talent development projects that they can use to help fill the gap between talent development and business performance.
Traditionally, when TD professionals are asked to work on a talent development project, they immediately jump to course development and project execution.
Instead of analysing the organisational need driving the project, they ask whoever is requesting the training or initiative about their required content, what they believe to be the learners’ needs and their preferred project duration.
This workshop provides TD professionals with an alternative approach to creating talent development projects. It teaches participants that, instead of going straight to course creation or initiative design and planning, they can incorporate the assessment of performance needs and organisational goals into their workflows.
In short, graduates of this training workshop will learn to start their course or initiative development process with strategy alignment.
This strategic thinking is what enables a TD professional to approach course or program creation from a business performance perspective. By knowing the needs the organisation wishes to address with the project, one can design a program that can deliver on business goals.
This program equips attendees with the practical methods they can employ to assess business needs and performance goals and practise a strategic approach to TD project creation and design.
In a nutshell, this program teaches participants:
- A systematic assessment workflow for aligning talent development solutions with business performance outcomes
- How to recognise and identify the specific performance gaps that must be addressed to meet business goals
- How to recognise and identify organisational factors that have an impact on the performance levels of employees
- How to formulate learning strategies that balance individual results with organisational goals
2. Creating Leadership Development Programs
Date: 15-16 June 2023 (Thursday & Friday)
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Duration: 960 minutes (16 hrs)
Facilitator: Seema Menon
The Creating Leadership Development Programs training program was held on 15-16 June.
This module has been designed to give program participants access to an exclusive ATD model they can use to build and design transformative leadership development programs. The program also teaches how to pitch leadership development programs to organisations and stakeholders and highlight and showcase a program’s business value.
This training program equips trainees with the specific knowledge, assessment tools and processes that will enable them to maximise results, utilise organisation data, assess leadership competencies and behaviours, demonstrate the effectiveness of their leadership development initiative, and evaluate other initiatives.
In a nutshell, this program gives talent professionals:
- Access to more than 100 activities, ideas and ready-to-use tools that will enrich and enhance their leadership development initiatives
- Access to leadership development program best practices
- Access to the latest news, trends and opportunities in leadership development
- An efficient and effective workflow for building leadership development initiatives
3. Coaching Certificate
Date: 15-16 June 2023 (Thursday & Friday)
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Duration: 960 minutes (16 hrs)
Facilitator: Mustafa Galal
The Coaching Certificate program was held on 15-16 June.
According to a 2022 study by Romão et al., the coaching skills of an organisation’s leadership positively impact employee happiness. Through this positive effect on employee happiness, they have an indirect deterrent effect on turnover intention.
In another study conducted in 2022, 70% of the respondents reported that coaching helped with goal accomplishment. The respondents also said coaching boosted their morale, increased their confidence, improved their productivity and helped them maintain high work quality.
Indeed, coaching is an effective development approach. If you want to become a certified coach, this program is for you. It teaches effective coaching behaviours and empowers participants to coach employees, clients and organisations into growing, improving, setting goals, taking action, and achieving results.
In a nutshell, this program will:
- Teach you core coaching competencies and allow you to practise them
- Teach you to use and evaluate data to improve coaching results
- Teach you how to manage and maintain coaching progress and encourage clients to continue their efforts
- Teach you how to keep clients accountable for their progress
- Teach you how and when to end a coaching program
- Hone your ability to incorporate coaching competencies in your coaching sessions
- Enable you to create effective coaching plans
Stay Current With TD Trends
Learning and development programs are crucial to workplace happiness, employee job satisfaction, customer experience, and employee engagement. They are vital to attracting and keeping talents.
Register for ATD certificate programs. This will help you earn ATD certificates and CEUs, update your skill set, stay abreast of talent development trends, and keep yourself current on training methodologies.
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About The HR Observer
The HR Observer is a web publication that offers valuable HR insights, trends and best practices and covers relevant HR events in the Middle East. It aims to keep HR professionals in the region current with HR best practices and give them space to interact with and exchange ideas with their peers.
