Advanced Dealer Management programmes begin

A tight and highly competitive vehicle market, and more sophisticated and increasingly more demanding car buyers, have spurred motor dealers into finding ways to enhance the calibre of themselves and their senior staff - especially the business and finance managers.

By Tania Barlow

29 Mar 2012

We have seen interesting changes over the last five years in our training offering to dealer principals and their senior staff members. Sewells Group SA is a management training and business management consulting company in the automotive retail sector, and provides its services to most motor dealers in South Africa. The organisation has now "gone global" with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, India and China.

Registration opened

In South Africa we regularly produce well-rounded, competent and effective F&I business managers from our Financial & Insurance Business Manager Academy (FIBMA), and March sees the commencement of our first of two Advanced Dealer Management (ADM) programmes for this year. Registration has now opened for the second 2012 course, which begins in June. Also we have been going through a particularly active period at our Sewells NCA Campus.

FIBMA offers a combination of online learning and group facilitation (when requested) delivering a holistic development approach including a personal development component to the programme.

Fully FAIS compliant

Also successful candidates at the academy emerge with the appropriate combination of NQF (National Qualification Framework) credits and are then fully FAIS compliant (in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act). The academy also provides for FETC qualifications (Further Education and Training Certificates), which cover a wide spectrum of prescribed and voluntary courses for applicants.

Sewells Group's ADM programme attracts aspirant motor dealer principals from many parts of the Sewells' operational footprint, including South Africa. If you enter our ADM programme you can literally learn how to become a motor dealer principal - the top person in a highly complex and challenging business.

The ADM programme includes:

One-hundred-and-fifty contact hours of intensive, focused management instruction (seven clusters over 10 months)
Leading industry and subject matter expert facilitators
Exposure to a unique line-up of guest speakers
Business visits, case studies and workplace assignments
Insight into international best practices