Ashridge Postgraduate Diploma

Delegates completing the ACE-Ashridge Foundation Programme in 2006 were invited to apply for three places on the prestigious Ashridge Postgraduate Diploma.

Two of these were sponsored by ACE in 2007, with the remaining place sponsored by Ashridge itself – which will continue this year too.

“The Ashridge Postgraduate Diploma is a general management diploma,” explains Anthony Mitchell. “It covers each of the key strands of management: strategy, HR, marketing, operations, IT and leadership. Students here are asked to identify gaps in their current knowledge and say where and how they want to develop.”

The delegates who have passed through the ACE-Ashridge Foundation Programme get the equivalent of a ‘one-week credit’ against the diploma, for the work they have already undertaken.

It normally takes two to three years to complete this more rigorous and demanding diploma, three weeks in attendance (two for students of the ACE-Ashridge Foundation Programme) and plenty of self-study in the form of projects and assignments.

Once this is completed the students can go straight into year two of the Management College’s Executive MBA programme.

The three 2006 Foundation Programme delegates who have since moved on to tackle the full Ashridge Postgraduate Diploma Programme are:

• Andy Poskitt from Menzies Distribution,
• Heidi Hexaltine from News International, and
• Peter Hickman from The Telegraph

Andy Poskitt, magazine supply manager for Menzies Distribution comments: “The Ashridge Diploma has given me access to a first class training environment which is helping my own personal development, as well as those around me, through the skills I am developing.”

Now the 2007 intake are being invited to apply for the Diploma course. Programme delegates who are interested in taking their studies further have been asked to submit essays, and the best five will also undergo an interview in the selection process.

“I see that as an exciting part of the project,” says Anthony Mitchell, although he understands that going this extra step has to be a personal decision for each and every candidate based on available time and family commitments.