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University of Cape Town: Managing Technical Professionals

Tailor your leadership style to develop and support the unique needs of your technical team.

Tailor your leadership style to develop and support the unique needs of your technical team.

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This course is offered by , an edX partner
8 weeks
7–10 hours per week
Starts Mar 31, 2025
Enroll by Apr 6, 2025
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule

Get more information

Want to know more? Enter your information to learn more about this course from GetSmarter (an edX partner).

Get more information

Want to know more? Enter your information to learn more about this course from GetSmarter (an edX partner).

8 weeks
7–10 hours per week
Starts Mar 31, 2025
Enroll by Apr 6, 2025
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule

About this Course

Running a technical team offers a unique set of management challenges. The demands, needs, and motivators held by technical staff are often underestimated in companies, resulting in high staff turnover. Furthermore, technical professionals are commonly encouraged to develop their technical skills at the expense of leadership and interpersonal skills. In order to retain these technical employees and ensure they are performing optimally, leadership approaches need to be tailored for a team’s effective development and growth.

Enhance your leadership and soft skills on the Technical Team Management online short course from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Over eight weeks online, you’ll explore techniques that can be leveraged to improve team performance and innovation, and enhance career development opportunities for you and your direct reports. You’ll discover how to improve team dynamics, and manage change by cultivating effective communication channels, and strategic thinking. The course culminates in a team-specific and personal strategic action plan to help achieve organizational objectives.

This course aims to give existing or aspiring managers the ability to lead, support, and develop a team of technical employees, enhance their leadership skills and, by default, their careers. Due to its wide industry applicability, it can be relevant and beneficial to multiple technically orientated roles and responsibilities, including, but not limited to, IT experts, developers, engineers, and data scientists. Although the areas of expertise are varied and diverse, the course addresses leadership and development needs that are common across differing management positions in an effort to upskill technical professionals for an increasingly complex and demanding workforce.

Course curriculum

Skip Course curriculum

Gain expertise in motivating and developing technical professionals as you work through the weekly modules of this online short course.

Orientation module: Welcome to your Online Campus

Module 1: Introduction to managing technical professionals

Module 2: Communicating effectively and managing conflict within a technical team

Module 3: Managing technical teams

Module 4: Developing and leading technical professionals

Module 5: Managing stakeholder relationships within a technical environment

Module 6: Managing change and risk

Module 7: Driving innovation within technical teams

Module 8: Aligning technical teams to business strategy

About the certificate

Acquire invaluable insights into the essentials of effectively leading technical teams, and earn an official certificate of completion from the University of Cape Town.

Assessment is continuous and based on a series of practical assignments completed online. In order to be issued with a digital certificate, you’ll need to meet the requirements outlined in the course handbook. The handbook will be made available to you as soon as you begin the course.

Your certificate will be issued in your legal name and sent to you digitally upon successful completion of the program, as per the stipulated requirements. Please note, due to additional administrative requirements, at times UCT course certificate delivery may be delayed by several weeks/months.

Some facts about the subject

Key skills of aspiring tech leaders

“We believe that technical skills are table stakes – successful team members must also be situationally aware, communicate well, and have the appetite for continual learning.” – Misti Fragen, Vice President of Learning for Digital Products and Services, Novant Health

_The Enterprisers Project (Jul, 2020).___

The value of upskilling technical teams

Upskilling technical teams can result in happier team members producing better quality work, and the opportunity to learn new skills without having to find a new job.

_Digital Leaders (Oct, 2020).___

Why choose GetSmarter?

GetSmarter, an edX partner, delivers career-relevant, fully supported, and expert-led online courses from the world's leading universities and institutions. As an online learning expert with over 15 years' experience, GetSmarter leverages long-standing expertise in market research, data analysis, and business insights to ensure that you gain the skills critical to career growth.