January 25, 2010

First Group and Fletchers Bakery offer tips & tales in the Chrysalis Cafe

Have a look in the Chrysalis Cafe section (if you haven’t registered you’ll be asked for a few details) – First Group & Fletchers Bakery are the latest additions to share their experiences with you.

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January 04, 2010

Happy New Year from Skillstories!

The Skillstories Live network (which some of you will know in its previous guise as the Skills Practitioner Network) is launching in style with the first event of 2010 being hosted by NEC Group in Birmingham on the 9th February, followed by National Grid’s ‘Engineering our Future’ event on the 2nd March – both will be full of the usual success stories, workshops and networking opportunities.

Our new ‘Opening Doors to Learning Cultures’ series of events will be kicking off on the 24th February in Liverpool with Merseytravel inviting HR/Training and Development professionals from local organisations (or further afield) in to see first hand how they have developed a learning culture, bringing to life the benefits with an opportunity to meet learners and a site visit, along with a presentation detailing the why, the how, and the impact.

The 2010 Business in the Community Awards for Excellence have launched, with the new ‘Skills in the Workplace’ award open for entries – for more info see http://tinyurl.com/yek5nut.

Our panel of experts is expanding, and more and more companies are making the informal learning pledge – making a commitment to developing a learning culture in which informal and formal learning go side by side. Put your company’s name amongst the likes of Ginsters, McDonalds, Marshalls, Clugston Group and many many more in 2010 and let us profile the work you’re doing!

Plenty of opportunity for you to make 2010 a year of success for the learning culture of your organisation!

To keep up to date with what we can offer, you can now follow us on twitter. We’ll also be launching a new monthly e-newsletter so please watch out for this, we’d like to hear your feedback!

All the best for 2010!

The Skillstories Team

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November 23, 2009

Business in the Community Skills Practitioner Network

Delegates at today’s Skills Practitioner Network event run by Business in the Community and hosted by Aviva in York came up with sentences describing what a ‘learning culture’ is as part of a morning workshop activity.

Their definitions were:

A common shared vision for the organisation and individual to learn and adapt, to meet the needs of the individual and benefit the business for the future, enabled by a blended learning approach.

Value learning – do it, recognise it, reward it….so that everyone has the freedom to fulfil their potential and realise the value of learning for them and the organisation.

Organisation: empowered individuals with support of management, systems and processes in place.

Individual: demand personal development, feel valued, encouraged and excited and rewarded for learning.

He who cares, wins!

Consistent, comprehensive appetite and opportunity to learn for each individual.

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October 16, 2009

LDA funds Tribal to continue Skills for Life and Work at Ford Motor Company

Tribal have delivered the Ford award-winning Skills for Life programme since 2007, involving the assessment and coaching of employees by dedicated skills coaches beside the production line. The 1-1 learning sessions are tailored to each employee’s needs and take place in 30-minute slots to minimise the impact of production at the plant.

The programme is representative of the Ford commitment to the Skills Pledge, a government initiative designed to encourage businesses to invest in the skills of their workforce.

Continue reading...

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October 14, 2009

Help employees learn something new with the ‘Learning for All’ pilot project in the NE

The project uses ‘Learning Champions’ based in the workplace to promote learning to their peers, discovering the types of short courses that would be of interest to staff, and establishing the best time for the course to run.
Informal (semi structured) learning can occur in a variety places, including at home, at work or thorough daily interactions. The Learning for All programme focuses on providing courses based primarily in the workplace, taking place at either lunchtimes or after work.

For more information see the Learning for All page on the BITC website.

Continue reading...

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October 06, 2009

Sodexo, Marshalls and Incommunities amongst new employers to make a commitment to learning

Recognising the importance of informal learning on improving employee engagement, saving costs, and building stronger relations with the local community, these companies will find the support available on skillstories.org invaluable to maintain momentum and to shout out to other companies and their employees about what they are doing.

Join them in the Chrysalis Café!

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October 05, 2009

New IAL portal helps release your hidden assets by creating café culture at work

Visit our new Informal Adult Learning (IAL) portal and discover how you can start to prepare your workforce today for the challenges of tomorrow.

• Find practical guidance on cultivating a learning culture in your organisation
• Discover how other companies have achieved their successes
• Publicise your own learning culture with a quote or case study
• Access news, events and resources
• Find and work with new partners to increase learning opportunities
• Discover how to embrace new ways of learning, including the use of technology and broadcasting
• Find flexible ways of using existing spaces, or opening up new spaces, for learning

Make the learning pledge.  Start transforming your business now. http://www.skillstories.org/learningcultures/

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