THE idea of a dozen captains of industry pelting each other with paint balls on the West Pennine Moors is ludicrous.

But that is a picture conjured up by some when they hear the words "management training course".

Now the innovative Greater Manchester Fire Service is changing the popular misconception.

The best managers are the ones who get the best from their workers and, since managers are only people beneath their executive suits or uniforms, it makes sense to strip away the symbols to get to the wearers.

Years of frustrations, half-achieved ambitions or projects need peeling away to release the potential for good management.

This is the simple concept behind the courses run by the fire service at the Rivington training and conference centre.

Greater Manchester officers were sent all over the country on courses until the force decided it could lay them on locally.

Now the hugely successful training is available to anyone. The going rate for one week, all found, is a competitive £850 and the takers have found it pays dividends.

The preferred mix of the 12 participants is half fire service personnel and half others.

With support staff, two people are responsible for the courses: Divisional Officer Mike Bitcon, who is based at HQ, and the fire service's corporate training officer, civilian Gill Doyle.

The pair, with their different perspectives, work well together to winkle out the best from delegates in a series of classroom projects, group efforts and outdoor manoeuvres.

The courses have so far taught: High-ranking fire officers that personal prejudices in a workplace cannot lie unresolved; a middle-aged Dublin woman that her arthritis was no hindrance to her capabilities; and an extremely clever but diminutive Asian woman how to make herself heard in a crowd of male colleagues who once overlooked her input as they did her tiny stature.

Illustrative of the mix at Rivington, a recent intake included fire officers, people from the Australian High Commission and from the Royal Mail, all wearing the same gear and eating in the Rivington centre dining room.

Mike and Gill revel in the challenges thrown up and they have an invaluable co-ordinator of the outdoor activities in Sam Schofield, a member of the service's overseas rescue team.

In conjunction with Bolton Business School, there is a certificate in management studies to be gained and the next goal is an in-house diploma.

Meanwhile, the courses continue to break down barriers in work situations throughout the UK.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.