Educational Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends School Principals and Heads, Department Heads and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-068

Before you join: Participants should have experience in an education, training or learning-support setting and a working understanding of their institution’s learner groups, services and reporting arrangements.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Educational leaders must turn learner needs, policy requirements, workforce capacity and finite budgets into measurable improvement. They are expected to raise teaching quality, protect safeguarding, retain capable staff, respond to parent and community concerns, and provide credible assurance to governing bodies or senior executives. Without clear priorities, reliable data and disciplined follow-through, improvement activity can become a series of disconnected initiatives that place additional pressure on staff without improving learner outcomes.

This course develops the practical leadership methods used to direct education institutions, departments, programmes and support functions. Participants examine instructional leadership, strategic planning, governance, performance measurement, workforce management, change implementation, financial stewardship and inclusive practice. They learn to convert institutional goals into SMART objectives, use balanced scorecards and run charts to review performance, structure accountability through RACI, lead evidence-based improvement conversations, and manage risk through registers, controls and review cycles.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with education-sector cases, facilitated group analysis, leadership simulations and individual planning. Cases reflect realistic issues such as declining attainment, staff turnover, inspection findings, safeguarding concerns, budget pressure and resistance to curriculum change. Participants leave with an educational leadership action portfolio containing a strategy map, improvement plan, performance dashboard outline, stakeholder map, risk register and 90-day implementation plan.

The course is suited to current and aspiring leaders working in schools, colleges, universities, vocational institutes, learning and development functions, public education agencies and education-focused NGOs. It is designed for professionals who already supervise people, manage programmes or contribute to institutional planning and who need a more structured approach to leading improvement.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose institutional performance using balanced scorecards, attainment data and run charts
  • Formulate a strategy map linking mission, priorities, measures, initiatives and accountabilities
  • Design an education improvement plan with SMART objectives, milestones and owners
  • Lead instructional improvement through observation, coaching and professional learning communities
  • Conduct stakeholder analysis and change-impact assessment for major education initiatives
  • Apply RACI, delegated authority and risk registers to strengthen governance controls
  • Produce budget variance analyses and business cases for educational resource decisions
  • Create a 90-day leadership action plan with review points and success measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Makes leadership decisions more defensible through evidence, governance controls and documented rationale
  • Improves confidence when addressing staff performance, resistance and difficult conversations
  • Builds a practical method for turning inspection findings into improvement actions
  • Provides tools for presenting educational priorities to boards, executives and funders
  • Creates a personal 90-day plan for applying leadership methods immediately

For your organisation

  • Improves alignment between institutional priorities, budgets, staffing and learner outcomes
  • Strengthens governance reporting through clearer measures, ownership and risk oversight
  • Increases consistency of teaching-quality review, feedback and follow-up
  • Reduces failed change initiatives through stakeholder analysis and staged implementation
  • Supports earlier intervention on attainment gaps, workforce issues and safeguarding concerns

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their leadership responsibilities and make ethically defensible decisions.

  • Leadership, management and administration distinguished through education-based decision responsibilities
  • Instructional leadership priorities aligned with learner outcomes and institutional mission
  • Values statements translated into observable leadership behaviours and decisions
  • Ethical dilemmas assessed using duty, consequences and stakeholder rights
  • Professional boundaries, confidentiality and safeguarding responsibilities examined through realistic incidents
  • Personal leadership inventory identifies strengths, assumptions and development priorities

Participants can formulate an evidence-based strategy and improvement plan for an education setting.

  • Vision, mission and values tested for alignment and practical direction
  • PESTLE analysis identifies policy, demographic, economic and technology drivers
  • SWOT evidence separates internal capabilities from external opportunities and threats
  • Strategic priorities selected using impact, feasibility, urgency and resource criteria
  • SMART objectives define measurable improvement commitments and ownership
  • One-page strategy map links goals, initiatives, indicators and accountabilities
  • Risk register records assumptions, mitigations, triggers and review dates

Participants can establish clear accountability, reporting and policy-review arrangements.

  • Governance, leadership and management accountabilities distinguished using a RACI matrix
  • Board or governing-body reporting focuses on assurance, performance and decisions
  • Delegated authority schedules clarify approvals for staffing, finance and curriculum
  • Policy cycles cover drafting, consultation, approval, communication and review
  • Meeting agendas and minutes capture decisions, actions, owners and deadlines
  • Conflict-of-interest declarations protect impartiality in procurement and appointments

Participants can use performance data to identify improvement priorities and monitor progress.

  • Logic models connect inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and intended impact
  • Baseline data establishes starting points for improvement targets and equity gaps
  • Balanced scorecard measures learner, people, process and financial performance
  • Disaggregated attainment data identifies gaps by cohort, subject and location
  • Run charts distinguish common-cause variation from signals requiring investigation
  • Data-quality checks test definitions, completeness, timeliness and source consistency
  • Dashboard design assigns indicators, thresholds, owners and review frequency

Participants can lead structured processes for improving teaching, assessment and learner progress.

  • Instructional leadership cycles use observation, feedback, coaching and follow-up
  • Curriculum alignment checks intended, taught, assessed and attained learning
  • Walkthrough protocols collect low-inference evidence of teaching and learning
  • Questioning, retrieval practice and formative assessment inform improvement conversations
  • Coaching conversations use GROW questions, evidence and agreed next steps
  • Professional learning communities review learner work and test teaching responses
  • Quality assurance calendars coordinate moderation, review visits and improvement actions

Participants can manage staff performance, development and retention with greater consistency.

  • Workforce plans match staffing profiles to enrolment, curriculum and budget
  • Recruitment criteria define technical competence, values and safeguarding requirements
  • Performance management agreements set expectations, evidence sources and review milestones
  • Situational leadership adapts direction and support to colleague readiness
  • Difficult conversations follow SBI feedback, active listening and clear requests
  • Succession plans identify critical roles, talent pools and development actions
  • Staff wellbeing indicators inform workload, absence and retention interventions

Participants can plan and lead education change while addressing stakeholder concerns.

  • Kotter's eight-step model structures urgency, coalition and sustained change
  • Stakeholder mapping assesses influence, interest, concerns and engagement approaches
  • Change-impact assessments identify altered roles, processes, skills and controls
  • Communication plans specify audiences, messages, channels, timing and feedback routes
  • Resistance conversations surface losses, uncertainty, objections and workable responses
  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Implementation milestones sequence pilots, decisions, training, monitoring and adjustment

Participants can make financially sound resource decisions linked to educational priorities.

  • Zero-based budget assumptions connect educational priorities to affordable resource choices
  • Budget variance analysis separates volume, price, timing and control causes
  • Unit-cost calculations compare programme delivery options and staffing models
  • Procurement specifications define need, evaluation criteria, safeguarding and contract controls
  • Segregation of duties reduces fraud risk in purchasing and payments
  • Business cases present options, costs, benefits, risks and recommendation
  • Monthly finance reviews trigger corrective actions against agreed tolerances

Participants can integrate equity, safeguarding and stakeholder trust into leadership decisions.

  • Equity audits examine access, participation, attainment and progression patterns
  • Universal Design for Learning offers multiple means of engagement and expression
  • Safeguarding response pathways define recognition, recording, reporting and escalation
  • Trauma-informed leadership considers safety, trust, choice, collaboration and agency
  • Family engagement plans segment audiences, barriers, messages and contact methods
  • Community partnerships clarify shared outcomes, referral routes and accountability
  • Complaints procedures balance procedural fairness, confidentiality and timely resolution

Participants can convert course methods into a prioritised and measurable leadership action plan.

  • School improvement plans prioritise outcomes, milestones, owners, resources and measures
  • PDCA cycles test changes, review evidence and standardise effective practice
  • 90-day action plans convert leadership priorities into weekly commitments
  • Peer accountability arrangements schedule progress checks and problem-solving support
  • Personal stakeholder messages explain the case for immediate action
  • Implementation risks receive owners, early-warning indicators and contingency actions
  • Reflective leadership journals record decisions, evidence, learning and adjustments

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Educational strategy map template
  2. Institutional improvement plan template
  3. Balanced scorecard dashboard model
  4. Leadership stakeholder map
  5. Education risk register
  6. 90-day leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • School Principals and Heads — responsible for institutional direction, quality and accountability
  • Department Heads — need structured methods for improving teaching and learner outcomes
  • Academic Deans — oversee faculty performance, curriculum delivery and resource priorities
  • Programme Managers — coordinate education initiatives, staff and performance reporting
  • Education NGO Managers — manage learning programmes, partners and donor-funded commitments
  • Aspiring Education Leaders — preparing for first-line or middle-leadership responsibilities

Skills and tools covered

Educational strategic planningInstructional leadershipPerformance measurementGovernance assuranceChange leadershipEducation budgeting

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, RACI matrix, PDCA cycle

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce leadership models, followed by case analysis, group exercises, simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with realistic education management scenarios involving learner performance, staffing, quality assurance, finance, safeguarding and change resistance. Facilitated discussions compare leadership choices and their operational consequences. Individual work translates course methods into an institutional strategy map, improvement plan and 90-day action plan. Trainers adapt cases and discussion prompts to the participant group, whether school, higher education, vocational or NGO-based.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience in an education, training or learning-support setting and a working understanding of their institution’s learner groups, services and reporting arrangements. The course is most useful for people who supervise staff, coordinate programmes, contribute to planning, or expect to assume these responsibilities soon. Familiarity with basic budgets and performance reports is helpful but not essential. No prior formal qualification in education leadership, finance, data analysis or project management is required. Participants do not need to bring institutional data, although examples from their own workplace may support application planning.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand the basic operations of an education or training setting and ideally have some supervisory, programme or planning responsibility. Formal leadership training is not required, and the course explains the financial, data and governance methods used.

Bring a laptop or notebook for planning work and, if permitted, a current institutional challenge such as an improvement priority, staffing issue or performance concern. Confidential learner, staff or financial data should not be shared.

It is designed for current and aspiring leaders in schools, colleges, universities, vocational providers, public education agencies and education-focused NGOs. It is particularly relevant for professionals moving from teaching, programme delivery or coordination into management.

Teaching methodology courses focus on lesson design, facilitation and assessment techniques. This course focuses on leading people, setting direction, monitoring institutional performance, managing resources and improving educational quality at team or institution level.

Participants build an action portfolio around a live leadership priority, including a strategy map, stakeholder analysis, risk register and 90-day plan. These materials can be adapted for departmental meetings, management reporting and improvement reviews.

The programme contains ten modules delivered in teaching order over five days, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day from 08:30 to 16:30. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, group analysis, simulations and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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