Two more emergency service workers have upskilled themselves through the fully funded courses available through the Seetec Outsource Blue Light Academy programme. Cath Morgan, a Manager in the Strategy, Planning and Transformation team, completed the “Managing Difficult Conversations” option whilst Francesca Balor, an Administration Officer, chose the “Organisational Culture and Strategy” course.
Cath explained her motivation for wanting to enrol on the course: “I was keen to complete this course because I’m taking on more of a responsibility for line management in my new role and because we’re working towards being a high-performing team. The course fitted well with this internal development we’re currently going through. As part of this process, there have been more difficult conversations that have emerged and this was not one of my strong points, so this acted as my motivation for wanting to upskill myself in this area.”
Meanwhile, Francesca had slightly different motivations: “I’m passionate about organisational culture; I’m registered blind myself and so I have a lot of knowledge around equality, but I wanted to learn about how to translate that into the culture and strategy of an organisation like NWAS.”
She then went on to explain what she had learned: “The course provided me with lots of new subjects to consider: We covered the differences between equality and equity, how you would approach a cultural change within an organisation and placing NWAS within the different types of organisation that exist. I’ve learnt a lot more about the history behind NWAS and have reflected on the process behind certain internal strategies. It’s made me realise that to make a cultural change, you need to strip it back to basics and make it fundamental that employees can celebrate their difference.”
Cath described how she had found the course content and the delivery style: “I really enjoyed the course- the content was really interesting, and it allowed me to reflect on previous incidents that had gone well or not so well and it genuinely helped me to come up with some new ways to approach things in the future. I also really liked that for the assessment, you could complete it either through talking or writing; I’m normally someone who prefers writing but on the few sections where I wasn’t as confident, I was able to chat them through with Aviva, the course tutor, instead.”
Both learners said that they would recommend their respective courses to their colleagues, with Cath saying: “A few people in our team have either already completed, or are due to start, one of the Blue Light Academy courses, and I’ve only heard good feedback across the board.”
Francesca added: “There’s a lot of movement within our organisation with people moving roles and these courses are perfect for giving you the skills to enable that. I’ve been able to use what I’ve learned in feeding back to my team which just shows that the courses not only benefit you as the learner but benefit the whole organisation as well.”
To find out more about the full range of courses available or to speak to our team, please click this link.
* Skills for Growth is funded through the European Social Fund and aims to plug the skills gaps in priority sectors across Greater Manchester as outlined in the Combined Authority’s Local Industrial Strategy.
