“The move towards other types of learning such as e-learning courses will be a profound change for most.”
Effective learning and development is critical to the success of the Civil Service Reform Plan. We need a stronger, more unified Civil Service equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern world. One year ago we launched Civil Service Learning (CSL) to provide the tools to deliver this.
CSL has made great progress in its first year. 335,000 people, more than three quarters of all civil servants, have registered for the service and this number is rising daily. Evaluation results after the first year are excellent – nearly 100,000 civil servants have had their say about the learning they have done – 96% say their courses met its objectives and 85% say they have already put the learning into action in their work.
This positive feedback is particularly pleasing given that CSL has brought in significant changes in a short space of time. There has been a fundamental shift from a classroom based approach to one which is far more blended, making greater use of technology and learning in the workplace. We have all become accustomed to a certain way of undertaking training and so the move towards other types of learning such as e-learning courses will be a profound change for most. Nevertheless, feedback from those who undertake e-learning has been strong – 97% saying the courses achieve their objectives.
Last year’s Civil Service-wide People Survey also showed encouraging responses to learning and development with a 4% increase in civil servants saying they can access the learning and development they need. However we must do better.
The People Survey did also show that some people do feel they cannot access the all the training opportunities they need. I believe there are several reasons behind this.
First, as mentioned previously there has been a shift in how we undertake learning and I’m confident that as more civil servants sign up and take advantage of CSL’s services, the feedback will improve.
Secondly, work pressures may prevent people from feeling they can take time to undertake learning. If you feel this way, you need to talk this through with your line manager. The Civil Service Reform Plan commits to providing civil servants with 5 days training each per year and your line manager has a responsibility to ensure you can develop your skills to do the best job you possibly can.
Finally, I believe there could be a mistaken perception that training budgets are not available. Whilst it may be the case that budgets are lower, CSL has brought down the cost of learning significantly – with most face to face courses being delivered 70% cheaper than before. E-learning and the wide range of other learning resources available on the CSL website are all free for end users. I therefore do not believe that training budgets should not generally be an issue, although like all budgets it will need to be actively managed.
So congratulations to Jerry Arnott and his team on achieving so much in their first year. Of course, as with all areas of the Civil Service, it needs to continuously improve. A key priority must be to drive up the number of subscribers and I encourage all of you who haven’t yet done so to sign up. If you have signed up – why not log in and check out the learning opportunities available to you? The recent roll out of the competency framework and forthcoming publication of the capabilities plan are huge steps in identifying the skills needed for the modern civil servant and CSL has a pivotal role in putting these plans into action.
