At Argyll and Bute Council we are committed to supporting our employees to embrace lifelong learning and realise their full potential. Growing Our Own means that we will provide development opportunities for our workforce to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge for their current role, and can progress in their career.
We offer a variety of opportunities for employees to gain new and develop existing skills and knowledge, which will help them to undertake their role and also prepare them for new opportunities which might arise.
An innovative and proactive Talent Management Team are in place, who set out to create a positive learning and development environment linked to our organisation's behaviours and cultures which provides a platform to attract, retain and develop employees. Incorporating our culture and behaviours into our talent management activities ensures the council not only remains a great place to work, but also is able to attract, retain and develop talent.
We provide a number of structured training opportunities in order to develop talent within our workforce. Some of these include:
Argyll and Bute Manager
Argyll and Bute Manager is a leadership and management development initiative, which has been created to ensure that our managers have the correct skills and knowledge to be able to effectively manage their teams. We have recently revamped the programme, which has a blended learning approach, combining face to face training with e-learning to create an efficient learning experience.
We have recognised that our managers and leaders need to be agile and resilient, to manage and lead in a rapidly changing environment. This initiative equips our managers with the knowledge, skills and behaviours they require to support their teams to deliver on the council’s overall objective - to make Argyll and Bute a place people choose to live, learn, work, visit and invest.
Strong, effective leadership allows us to improve and progress in the best way for our team, the council and the communities we serve. By identifying managers at the right stage of their career and investing in preparing them for their future role, we can ensure that we have managers who are professional, competent, confident and feel supported. The initiative has four different elements, aimed at developing employees at the right time in their career:
Preparing to Manage:
- Audience: New line managers, or employees at a stage in their career where they are preparing for their next step into a line management role.
- Content: This programme starts to develop managers to ensure that they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to take the next step in their career.
Managing Teams:
- Audience: Existing managers of teams, who are looking to improve their effectiveness.
- Content: This programme provides managers with the skills and knowledge to become a better manager, improve their competence and ability to effectively support and lead their teams through change, ensuring that they all reach their full potential.
Leading Teams:
- Audience: Senior Managers
- Content: This programme builds on key leadership competencies and behaviours which are necessary to influence organisational performance and success.
Empowering Teams:
- Audience: Heads of Service & Executive Directors
E-Learning
As a result of the geography of Argyll and Bute Council, the varied working patterns of our employees and the ongoing developments in remote learning, it is essential that employees are able to access training courses at a time and location which is suitable to them. Our online learning system, contains a number of courses which have been made available to either support employees across all roles within the organisation, or have been custom built to reflect the council’s policies and procedures.
Courses last from 10 to 90 minutes and contain short assessments to allow you to test the knowledge that you have learnt. We also have courses to complement our face to face learning, which can act as a handy refresher or provide you with a basic understanding before attending a face to face course. This ensures that courses are effective and skills can continue to be utilised and refreshed beyond the course. All employees are able to access LEON, even from home, meaning there are learning and development opportunities for all employees.
We have a wide range of courses, meaning employees can choose those relevant to their roles to allow them to gain relevant knowledge and skills.
Corporate Training Programme
To complement our extensive online training, Argyll and Bute Council has a training plan which is developed, sourced and supported by the Talent Management Team which is based on needs identified by our employees. This training will help to ensure all our employees develop knowledge and enhance the skills they need to deliver professional, consistent services. All of our learning is directly linked to our core competencies and organisational values.
Argyll and Bute Council Training Centre
Alongside the training programme and e-learning, the Talent Management Team also operates the SQA accredited Argyll and Bute Council Training Centre. This provides opportunities for employees to undertake qualifications which are relevant to their role and are supported by Argyll and Bute Council. The training centre offers a number of qualifications such as SVQ’s in a range areas including Health and Social Care areas, Education and Business and Administration. Personal Safety and First Aid courses are also available. The training centre is continuing to look at offering more qualifications for employees. Employees are entitled, under our conditions of service, to spend time at work learning. This emphasises our commitment to investing in and growing our employees throughout their working lives.
Employee Excellence and Recognition Awards and Learning Awards
Every year the Talent Management Team organise the Employee Excellence and Recognition Awards and the Learning Awards to acknowledge the achievements and contributions of teams and individuals in our organisation. We are an award winning organisation and our award ceremonies recognise and celebrate our achievements. We also encourage all of our employees to celebrate success and regularly update the Celebrating Success part of our employee intranet the Hub.