Introduction
If you are interested in applying for a position as an Accredited Program Director (APD) at Appleton Greene, then please complete all parts of this application form.
The application form will only take you approximately 30 minutes to complete . Please complete all parts of this application form and if you do not have an answer to a particular question, please insert N/A.
Please note that this application form would need to be received by Appleton Greene on or before the designated closing date applications, if you would like your application to be considered. The closing date will be featured towards the top of the invitation email that you have received from Appleton Greene.
The annual fee for this service is USD$1,500.00 and this will need to be paid by international bank wire transfer within 7 business days, if your application is approved by Appleton Greene.
Please insert your answers in lower case apart from when starting sentences and proper names. Do not use upper case or capital letters where it is not appropriate to do so. Thank you for your kind interest in Appleton Greene & Co.
Opportunity
Establish your own independent Appleton Greene corporate training practice by managing a portfolio of standard and bespoke corporate training programs through Appleton Greene.
This represents a unique and cost-effective opportunity for innovative and creative corporate training specialists and consultants to establish a sustainable corporate training practice, by developing standard and bespoke corporate training programs. It represents an opportunity for corporate trainers to develop or facilitate the development of a portfolio of accredited training products, based upon their own core skills and experience. It also represents an opportunity for consultants to provide their clients with accredited training products, rather than merely charging clients for their time, advice or opinions. Established Appleton Greene Accredited Program Directors (APD) earn up to 10 times more than established independent consultants, simply because they are not governed by the time they may have available, which will always be limited and clients will measure value based upon the training products themselves, rather than a consultant’s chargeable time. Any established independent consultant will be only too familiar with the need to balance the time allocated for consulting service provision with time allocated for business development and the unavoidable feast and famine that invariably results from this. While a consultant is developing new business, they are not earning income and while they are servicing clients, they are not developing new business. Registering as an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) therefore represents a significant step up for independent consultants, because it represents an opportunity to focus upon the development and implementation of their services or programs, without having to worry about business development.
There is only really one proven and established way to achieve financial independence as a corporate trainer or independent consultant and that is to incorporate your core skills, knowledge and experience within a tangible product such as a corporate training program. By developing a tangible product, the most successful training consultant thereby enable their clients to measure value by evaluating and assessing the product that they supply, rather than the time allocated and charged for. This significantly increases a consultant’s earning capacity and makes it much easier for them to develop and establish their business, because they ultimately have something tangible to offer their clients, instead of merely charging for their advice, opinions, or expertise, the value of which will always be subjected to close scrutiny. Apart from the obvious financial benefits, it also enables consultants to provide their clients with something tangible and sustainable, instead of firefighting, being project-driven, or constantly relying upon clients to outsource tasks to them. Some examples of tangible products that consultants can offer their clients are often referred to as PROPS and include: Programs; Reports; Operation procedures; Processes; and Software. Appleton Greene specializes in the provision of the first of these PROPS, that is to say, Programs, or more specifically, Corporate Training Programs. By tangible, we mean something that clients can see and review before engaging consultants, after all, seeing is believing. If clients can understand precisely what they are being asked to buy, what it looks like and how it works, then the business development process is always much easier and clients can quickly measure value based upon how important the product is perceived in terms of achieving their Key Corporate Objectives (KCO). Alternatively, if you find that you are merely forwarding your Resume or CV to potential clients and are then relying upon them to have a project that is suited to your own personal skills and experience, then you are not really consulting, you are merely operating as a temporary employee. It is also somewhat obvious to clients when consultants are not really sure about what they are doing, or are making things up as they go along, or are relying upon the client to be able to tell them what to do. This is why many consultants can develop an unfortunate reputation for “telling their clients the time and then charging them for it”. Alternatively, by packaging their core service skills in to a tangible product, such as a corporate training program, consultants are demonstrating confidence in the value of their knowledge and a commitment to facilitate the implementation of this knowledge within the client’s business processes and procedures.
Appleton Greene & Co specializes within this particular market space, corporate training is what we do. We have facilitated the development of hundreds of standard and bespoke corporate training programs during the last 25 years and becoming an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) is a very good place for new corporate trainers and consultants to start. It only costs USD$1,500.00 to register as an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) and this enables you to see if the portfolio of corporate training programs that you would personally like to manage, are likely to be viable propositions and ones where there would be sufficient market demand generated from potential clients. Appleton Greene would enable you to create a detailed outline plan for your proposed corporate training programs, including a Corporate Program Guide (CPG), developed in four parts, which would then be linked to four client service order application forms, enabling clients to place program orders directly with you. You would also be featured as an Accredited Program Director (APD) on the Appleton Greene web site and this would provide potential clients with direct links to your Corporate Program Guide (CPG), where clients can find out much more about the program, or programs that you personally offer. Your Corporate Program Guide (CPG) will then be promoted by Appleton Greene on your behalf within monthly news emails that are regularly forwarded to 750+ Learning Providers, 500+ consultants and 500,000+ client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network. Detailed client lists and testimonials are available online by selecting CLIENTS from the home page.
Accredited Program Directors (APD) can earn up to USD$300,000.00 annually with just one established Appleton Greene standard corporate training program. You can then increase your income by adding additional corporate training programs. Expand your Appleton Greene Corporate Training Practice by adding new standard and bespoke programs to your portfolio and by re-developing established programs for new markets and industry sectors. By developing a suite of 10 programs, the Accredited Program Director (APD) could potentially increase their annual income by 10 times to USD$3m.
Registering as an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) therefore represents a low-risk cost-effective opportunity for corporate trainers and consultants who are serious about establishing a sustainable independent corporate training practice and the annual cost of USD$1,500.00 is negligible, when you consider the alternative costs of business development options that are otherwise available to consultants and the scope and depth of the service that is being provided by Appleton Greene. Accredited Program Directors (APD) can either elect to outsource the development of their programs to other Appleton Greene learning providers or consultants, in order to focus upon business management, or they can elect to focus upon program development themselves, in which case they can eventually progress towards becoming an Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP), subject to ongoing availability.
Service Features
The following list represents what we consider to be the Critical Success Factors (CSF) for the Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) service. Each individual factor is explained in more detail below.
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Opportunity
Establish your own independent Appleton Greene corporate training practice by managing a portfolio of standard and bespoke corporate training programs through Appleton Greene.
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Interview
If you would like to discuss this opportunity personally over the telephone with a registered Appleton Greene representative who is responsible for the Accredited Program Director (APD) service, then you are of course welcome to do so.
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Requirements
Anyone with a recognized MBA or business-related Masters Degree is eligible to apply. Anyone with a BBA or business-related Degree is also welcome to apply, if they have 10 years executive management, consulting, or training experience.
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Income
Earn up to USD$300,000.00 annually with just one established Appleton Greene standard corporate training program. You can then increase your income by adding additional corporate training programs.
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Expansion
Expand your Appleton Greene Corporate Training Practice by adding new standard and bespoke programs to your portfolio and by re-developing established programs for new markets and industry sectors. By developing a suite of 10 programs, the Accredited Program Director (APD) could potentially increase their annual income by 10 times to USD$3m.
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Support
Benefit from our exclusive (APD) mentoring and support service, provided by our established professional team of Professors, Learning Providers, Consultants and Program Managers, located worldwide.
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Promotion
Direct marketing promotions through Appleton Greene to over 750+ learning providers and 500,000+ designated client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network. Client program orders are processed by Appleton Greene.
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Location
Appleton Greene has clients, consultants, learning providers and program directors within most major cities worldwide, so it does not matter where you may be personally located internationally.
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Time
Standard programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually 4 years, incorporating 48 monthly workshops together with online support. Only 8 hours per month are required on the client’s premises, plus 8 hours per month for online
support. An (APD) can therefore manage a portfolio of 5 clients part time within 20 hours per week, or 10 clients full time within 40 hours per week.
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Resources
As your practice grows, you can either elect to employ dedicated trainers internally, or alternatively outsource to 500+ Appleton Greene Accredited Associate, Executive and Senior Consultants, located within most major cities worldwide.
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Service charges
It only costs USD$1,500.00 to register as an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) and this enables you to see if there would be sufficient market demand generated from potential clients for your proposed Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
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Testimonials
There are literally hundreds of testimonials published online within the Appleton Greene web site for your information, available from clients and learning providers and we suggest that you take the time to review these.
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Risk
Continue with your current employment until you have an established client base at Appleton Greene. You can elect to work part time or full time with Appleton Greene and scale your activities up or down to accommodate your other work commitments.
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Evaluation
Appleton Greene & Co takes great care to ensure that candidates are evaluated and assessed carefully before being offered a position as an Accredited Program Director (APD).
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How to apply
If you would like to apply, please complete this Application Form. The application form should take you no longer than approximately 30 minutes.
Income & Service Fees
Earn up to USD$300,000.00 annually with just one established Appleton Greene standard corporate training program. You can then increase your income by adding additional corporate training programs.
Appleton Greene charges clients USD$30,000.00 for each part, which is for a period of 12 months, incorporating 12 monthly workshops, together with online support via email or the Appleton Greene cloud servers. The time allocated for each monthly workshop is 8 hours and the time allocated for online support is also 8 hours per month. Once clients have completed Part 1, they can then continue onto Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 respectively, as and when they are ready to do so. This equates to USD$2,500.00 per month for each client, or USD$25,000.00 per month for a combined portfolio of 10 clients, or USD$300,000.00 annually. Appleton Greene charges a service fee, amounting to 10% of the total invoice value of any and all business that is undertaken through Appleton Greene. This covers the cost of Appleton Greene’s customer service, quality management, e-business, financial accounting, global operations, human resources, technology development, legal operations, business management, marketing and program production. An introductory fee of 10% is also payable to Appleton Greene Accredited Learning Providers, or Accredited Associate, Executive, or Senior Consultants who have personally been responsible for introducing the new client companies that have placed program orders with you.
When a program application form has been completed by a client, it is evaluated and assessed by Appleton Greene for authenticity. It is then forwarded onto the Accredited Program Director (APD) for their consideration. It is the Accredited Program Director’s prerogative to elect whether to accept or decline the program order, depending upon their current resource availability. If the program application is accepted by the Accredited Program Director (APD), then it is forwarded onto Appleton Greene’s legal department for approval. Once approved, our accounts department issues the client with an invoice, which is payable monthly in advance of service provision to Appleton Greene by international bank wire transfer throughout the duration of the contractual agreement. Upon receipt of funds, Appleton Greene then pays the Accredited Program Director (APD), less the 10% service and 10% introduction fees, by international bank wire transfer, within 30 days. An established Accredited Program Director (APD) therefore has a projected net annual income of USD$240,000.00 after the appropriate service fees have been deducted, based upon an established portfolio of 10 clients with just one corporate training program. Accredited Program Directors are responsible for managing their own tax affairs, depending upon the individual tax jurisdictions where they may be classed as resident for tax purposes. Your local tax specialist or accountant will be able to advise you accordingly at the appropriate time. Accredited Program Directors are also responsible for their own corporate, professional indemnity and health insurance requirements and any other ordinary disbursements relating to their independent corporate training practice.
Accredited Program Directors can go onto earn much more than this by employing professional trainers internally, or by outsourcing to Appleton Greene Accredited Associate, Executive, or Senior Consultants. Appleton Greene has Accredited Consultants located within most major cities worldwide. Accredited Program Directors (APD) should see themselves as Program Directors, as the title suggests. In other words, they should ultimately be responsible for managing their programs, not implementing them. This enables them to scale-up the activities of their own Appleton Greene corporate training practice by engaging more clients, developing more programs and/or servicing additional industry sectors and geographical locations. Success will ultimately be dependent upon willing clients and the interest generated by the corporate training programs that are developed and managed by individual Accredited Program Directors (APD), but the cost of registering as an Appleton Greene Accredited Program Director (APD) is only USD$1,500.00 annually and the other service charges levied would only be applicable as and when program orders have been placed by clients and when funds for these service orders have been received by Appleton Greene. This business opportunity is therefore entirely self-financing with the exception of the annual service fee of USD$1,500.00, which merely covers the administrative costs of developing and updating the Accredited Program Director Profile (PDP), Corporate Program Guide (CPG) and the ongoing promotion and distribution of this information to learning providers, consultants and client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network.
Requirements
Anyone with a recognized MBA or business-related Masters Degree is automatically eligible to apply. Anyone with a BBA or business-related Degree is also welcome to apply, if they have at least 10 years executive management, consulting, or training experience.
All candidates should have a clear understanding about the subject matter of the corporate training programs which they would ideally like to provide through Appleton Greene and these programs should each incorporate a strong Unique Program Proposition (UPP). This does not mean that your programs are expected to be better than other programs, it just means that they need to be sufficiently different. Appleton Greene does not expect that you will already have developed these programs, but we do expect you to have a clear idea about the program, or programs, that you would like to provide. Ideally, your corporate training programs should be based upon your own core skills and interests and should reflect any service methodologies where you have had experience.
Accredited Program Directors (APD) can usually be considered to be in one or both of the following categories:
Corporate Program Managers
A good Corporate Program Manager, is not necessarily good at developing programs themselves. They prefer to focus upon the management or direction of their Appleton Greene corporate training practice. They tend to be good at coming up with ideas for new corporate training programs, which would match the Key Corporate Objectives (KCO) of their chosen market sector. Indeed they tend to have the knack of always knowing what their prospective clients will want or need. They become proficient at writing a variety of Corporate Program Guides (CPG) and identifying client needs and then publish these through Appleton Greene in order to create awareness and to establish client interest. They prefer to outsource the development of their programs either to their own employees, to other Appleton Greene Certified Learning Providers (CLP), Associate Learning Providers (ALP), or Accredited Associate, Executive, or Senior Consultants. This enables them to focus upon expanding their own independent Appleton Greene corporate training practice, by providing more programs, servicing more clients and by outsourcing the program development and implementation to others. Corporate Program Managers operate as Directors and are entrepreneurial by nature. Candidates with executive experience at board level, or established senior consultants, are likely to fall into this category.
Corporate Program Developers
A good Corporate Program Developer, tends to be innovative and creative. Satisfaction is achieved by being responsible for creating something new or different and these candidates tend to want to focus their time, almost exclusively towards developing new programs. They usually see business development, management and implementation as peripheral activities, which can be outsourced to Appleton Greene Associate Learning Providers (ALP), Accredited Associate, Executive and Senior Consultants and they do not usually want to employ the services of internal employees themselves, in order to spend less time managing and more time developing. These candidates are intuitive by nature and like a good Author, they want to focus upon writing as many corporate training programs as they can and leave the business development and management to others. These candidates will usually progress towards becoming a qualified Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) at some stage.
This is not to say that candidates cannot be considered as being both a Corporate Program Manager and a Corporate Program Developer and indeed many are.
If you are people orientated by nature and you achieve things through facilitation, or by enabling others to be more proactive, then your consultancy products should really reflect this. In other words, your products should constitute corporate training programs. This opportunity will therefore be of interest to anyone who is either consulting or training already or who plans to consult or train independently at some point in the future and who cares about providing their clients with value-added products and services. If you are independent by nature and are looking to achieve financial independence and to be in control of your own business planning, development, implementation and management and consider yourself to be someone who can empower and facilitate others, then you will need to consider developing your own skills and experience into a tangible and recognizable product, such as a corporate training program, at some stage in your career. If this is the case then the Accredited Program Director (APD) opportunity should be like a light coming on for you. If you do not feel this way yourself, then you can probably assume that this opportunity is not right for you.
