Middle management training workshop to promote excellence at Customs

Theodore Brown, Assistant Comptroller with responsibilities for Training

ST. KITTS, JANUARY 7, 2011 (Customs PRO) – The Customs and Excise Department is seeking to improve the supervisory skills of its middle management in order to provide quality service as officers within the chief enforcement agency in trade in the Federation.

The department, with the assistance of the St. Lucia based Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC), has invited retired Strategic Advisor and Management Trainer in the International Relations Division of Her Majesty’s Customs of the United Kingdom, Mr. Andy Argyle to conduct two one-week training sessions with middle managers from January 17 – 28, 2011.

The areas of primary focus for these training sessions will be Leadership, Problem Solving, Negotiation Skills, Managing Conflict, Team Building, Change Management, Coaching, Media Management and the Roles and Responsibilities of Customs Managers.

Through these sessions the department desires to maintain a competent cadre of middle managers who possess the right skill sets to examine and perform in their roles and responsibilities while seeking high standards of performance and service delivery to all.

In a pre-training work plan, Mr. Argyle has described the upcoming sessions as “challenging but to be delivered in a supportive way, so as to discover and bring out the best in the management team. The learning will be practical and sessions will be augmented with handouts for future reference.”

Assistant Comptroller of Customs with responsibilities for Training, Mr. Theodore Brown said that these sessions as “needed to inculcate the virtue of excellence in the staff when serving the public.”

Brown said further that, “This training course will foster excellence which is an art won by training and constant practice. We want the staff at all levels to develop a culture of doing the job right.