Notes and news

Citation

(2018), "Notes and news", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 50 No. 6, pp. 363-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-07-2018-104

Course focuses on mental health

The University of Manchester has launched an online e-learning course designed to help its staff to respond to signs of mental illness in students.

The student mental health course will allow staff across the university to learn useful information about student mental health and also to learn some basic skills around managing students who are presenting signs of mental ill health or are at risk.

The e-learning course will enable the university to scale their mental health training for staff while keeping the content engaging and illustrative through the use of video content. The course contains videos that were made on the Manchester campus and the university helped to design all the content.

Sarah Littlejohn, Head of the counseling service at the university, described how student mental health is becoming a key priority for the university.

“The university is investing time, thought and resources into the whole area of student mental health, both in terms of the support it offers to students and also to staff in their roles,” she said. “This course is a clear example of that and is a reflection of our general approach to supporting students and being responsive to mental health difficulties. The mental health of students is a key concern for all universities. In order to raise the awareness and the skills level of staff across the university, we needed training that had scale and reach. Although we offer face-to-face workshop training, we could never hope to reach the numbers of people that we aimed to, so we wanted to supplement the more intensive face-to-face training with the broader availability of online learning. Whether you are a student support office worker, an academic, working in residences or in security, any of the people in contact with students can encounter those struggling with their mental health and will need to learn how to respond.”

David Marshall, Founder of Marshall E-Learning, explained: “The University of Manchester now has an innovative product that offers staff and students something they have not had before. The course is going to form part of a suite of learning modules for training around supporting students with their mental health. And with a large staff population, only e-learning can offer the reach and scale needed for an issue such as student mental health. For every student who attends the counseling service, there may be many more who feel isolated and even drop out of university, so it is student-facing staff of all kinds who will benefit from being able to detect and respond to some of the early signs of mental health issues in a student. In general, we have seen a big increase in universities investing in e-learning courses for students rather than staff – the overriding theme is pastoral support. As such we have worked carefully with a number of institutions to prepare smartphone compatible tutorials that will support the efforts universities are already making to support students.”

The script and key learning points for the student mental health course were developed by the members of the University of Manchester team, with technical expertise, including the videos and e-learning tool, provided by Marshall E-Learning.

The resource makes use of video clips illustrating a range of possible responses to common difficulties and learners are given the opportunity to compare how different interactions might go and consider their potential outcomes. A written commentary on the interchange highlights the key decision points involved in managing these conversations well.

The course comes at a time where a recent Universities UK report has said that student mental health provision risked “failing a generation” and some students may be “slipping through the gaps” between university and NHS provision.

Meeting the expectations of the modern workforce

A report based on evidence from more than 600 instructors and 10,000 learners aims to help leaders in learning and development (L&D) to meet the increasing expectations of modern, continuously learning workforces.

In today’s digital workplace, always-on technology offers new challenges to specialists in learning and organizational development catering for the evolving needs of the modern workforce, whose members are increasingly clear and vocal about what they want and need.

With 95 percent of L&D seeking to be more learner centered, only one in four are achieving the goals they seek. Too few in L&D have the time to really listen to their customers. As a result:

• only 54 percent of learners believe that L&D specialists understand and are able to provide help with their performance needs; and

• just 5 percent of learners agree that it is the opinion of L&D that is the greatest influence on them to learn online.

“Bridging the Divide” is released in association with Towards Maturity ambassadors, Mind Tools. Deputy chief executive Oliver Craddock, explained in his foreword: “This report gives us a way into the learners’ world and highlights the gap between their current perception of L&D, and where and how they feel that learning can have the biggest impact. Organizations can change their learning culture and involve learners in the design of learning tools and systems, to take advantage of the popularity of new thinking around UX and learner-centric design. With 30 percent of learners finding that learning content is not generally relevant to their needs, it is time for L&D to take stock of what they have on offer, listen to their learners, understand what they need and empower them to take ownership of their development.”

“Some 65 percent believe learners do not have the skills to manage their own learning. Around 80 percent of learners know what learning they need – but according to L&D, only 27 percent allow learners to determine their own path through a program of learning.”

“A lack of understanding of what motivates learners is at the heart of the communications divide. The report explores how to press the right buttons to motivate learners, and reveal how high performing learning organizations are having higher success rates using data gathered in the 2017 Towards Maturity Benchmark. Taking the time to reflect on your organization and participating in this annual L&D health check will help to identify where your company could make improvements, with our analysts on hand to help to direct you through the next steps of your journey to becoming a new learning organization.”

Laura Overton, CEO, Towards Maturity chief executive, adds: “This learner-centric approach is not new – in fact Towards Maturity has been reporting since The New Learner Agenda in 2013 when we first talked about the benefits of a customer-activated learning strategy, that L&D needs to better understand the behavior of today’s learner in order to design interventions that truly engage and support their need. This is the year for transformation and time for organizations to make these small changes that will lead to a big difference.”

The full report, “In Focus: Bridging the Divide, Solving the Communications Breakdown Between L&D and Learners,” is available free to download on the Towards Maturity website.

Employers criticize apprenticeship levy

More than half of employers currently paying the apprenticeship levy want it replaced with a training levy.

A Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey of employers warns of unintended consequences as nearly half (46 percent) of employers paying the levy expect their organization to simply re-badge existing training.

Among employers who currently pay the apprenticeship levy, 53 percent would prefer a training levy, compared with just 17 percent supporting the apprenticeship levy in its current form.

Four in ten levy-paying employers say it will make little or no difference to the amount of training they offer. Nearly half (46 percent) of levy-paying employers think that the levy will encourage their organization to re-badge current training activity in order to claim back their allowance.

More than a fifth (22 percent) of all employers still do not know whether they are liable to pay the levy. More than a half (53 percent) of employers who pay the apprenticeship levy want to see it replaced with a training levy. Among those already paying the levy, just 17 percent support the existing system.

The survey of more than 1,000 employers also shows that nearly half (46 percent) of levy-payers will be encouraged to simply re-badge current training activity in order to comply with the new regulations. Among that group, more than half (52 percent) will re-badge existing training activity into level 2 apprenticeships, equivalent to five GCSEs.

In addition, a fifth (19 percent) of levy-paying firms, including 35 percent of SMEs, do not plan to use the levy at all to develop apprenticeships, but will simply write it off as a tax.

Lizzie Crowley, Skills Adviser at the CIPD, said: “Our research shows that the straitjacket of the apprenticeship levy is forcing many firms to re-badge a lot of their existing training as apprenticeships, as they seek to claw back the levy they pay. In many instances this is not adding any value and is creating a lot of additional bureaucracy and cost. Apprenticeships are extremely important, but other forms of training are equally valuable and often more flexible and better suited to the needs of organizations. A move to a more flexible training levy would have the effect of continuing to prompt greater employer investment in skills, including apprenticeships, but in a way that is much more responsive to employers’ needs.”

“Another side effect of re-badging is that an increasing proportion of apprenticeships are going to existing and often older employees, including already well-qualified managers, meaning fewer are available to help young people to make the transition from education to the workplace – the original purpose of apprenticeships.”

The research also found that more than a fifth (22 percent) of employers still do not know whether they are paying the apprenticeship levy, and 13 percent who know they will have to pay have still not calculated what the levy will cost them.

The findings, from the report “Assessing the Early Impact of the Apprenticeship Levy,” come after a sharp decline in the number of apprenticeship starts, with just 48,000 new apprenticeship starts between May 2017 and July 2017, a 59 percent drop on the same period in 2016.

Lizzie Crowley continued: “Evidence from our report and the latest official statistics suggest the levy will also continue to drive the creation of far too many level 2 apprenticeships, which offer much poorer returns to individuals in terms of future wages and often provide limited progression opportunities.”

“The Government needs to seriously review the levy to ensure it is flexible enough to respond to employers’ needs and to drive the greater investment in high-quality training and workplace skills needed to boost UK productivity.”

“There also needs to be much better support for small and medium-size firms (SMEs), both for those that pay the levy and those that do not, to help them to design and implement effective apprenticeship schemes. Our research shows that too many SMEs are either not planning to use levy funding to invest in apprenticeships or are planning to write the levy off as a tax.”

In order to ensure that the apprenticeship levy increases both the quantity and quality of apprenticeship starts, the report recommends that the Government:

• reforms the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible training levy;

• runs an awareness campaign to promote the levy and its benefits to businesses across England;

• invests £13 million a year to provide HR support to small businesses in order to give them the capability to respond positively to Government initiatives such as the apprenticeship levy; and

• commissions an urgent review of apprenticeship standards, carried out by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, in order to ensure that they are providing quality learning and education.

Ford drives gender balance

Since 50 years of the Dagenham machinist strike, a significant industrial landmark that would see men and women paid equally for doing the same or similar work, Ford has published a gender pay report to highlight differences in the average pay between men and women.

As one of just 15 percent of companies that reported a positive gender pay gap, Ford is committed to the equality of opportunity and recognizes the benefits of a gender-balanced workforce. Ford has been able to achieve a balanced representation of male and female employees in a number of functions; however, female representation in engineering and manufacturing remains a challenge, not just for Ford, but across the wider industry.

In general, women account for less than 12 percent of those in engineering occupations and Ford is committed to a wide range of actions that encourage more young people, particularly girls, to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. This includes supporting engineering challenges, such as Greenpower Trust, Formula Goblins and Formula24, to Primary Engineer and First Lego League events.

“Research suggests that if more women went into STEM-related occupations, the gender pay gap in general would decrease,” say Lara Nicoll, Ford’s diversity and inclusion manager. “This is an evolving issue but now there is clear momentum from the Government and a focus on gender pay. As engineering is a relatively well-paid industry, it is one that we need to encourage more women to join.”

To encourage more female students into STEM subjects, Ford runs dedicated events such as “IT Girl’s Day” and “International Women in Engineering Day.” The company also celebrates the contribution of young women in the UK by running an annual competition that awards the achievements of female STEM undergraduates who use their skills to inspire the next generation of STEM students.

Internally, Ford has developed progressive policies that seek to provide an environment that enables all employees to realize their potential and support them through various stages of their lives. For example, the company provides a flexible working policy that offers men and women a range of ways to work, including job sharing.

Ford also has a maternity policy that is underpinned by maternity advisors, parenting workshops and a parenting network that help to position the company as a female employer of choice. Recognizing Ford’s work to lead best practice in this area the company became a founding member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Working Forward initiative.

“We have a maternity policy that is probably best in class, not just in our industry but across the UK,” says Lara Nicoll. “We are working with the Government to tackle discrimination against women because we believe that we have really strong policies to share with other businesses.”

Learning the lessons of the charity sector

What do charities with highly engaged staff and volunteers do differently from their less-well-performing counterparts? Research by Towards Maturity reveals lessons that all sectors can learn from.

Charities with a highly engaged workforce are using three key strategies:

1. They tackle barriers that lead to poor engagement. Some 53 percent pilot major learning initiatives to help to match learning to need and 45 percent include coaching and mentoring to minimize learner reluctance.

2. They empower learners to take responsibility. Almost half use support systems to promote self-reliance, rather than dependency, while 66 percent say workers have clear information on the learning opportunities available.

3. They involve leaders in decision making and learner support. Around 63 percent keep line managers and supervisors well informed, while 48 percent involve managers in designing appropriate solutions. Significantly, charities with highly engaged staff and volunteers are also doing things differently when designing learning content, with 61 percent using video, audio, images and animation and 48 percent integrating new concepts from theory into practice.

The report also highlights the benefits of collaboration, with members of the Charity Learning Consortium achieving greater efficiency savings from using learning technologies. Three quarters of consortium members say using learning technologies reduce time away from the job, while the average for the charity sector is 42 percent. Some 65 percent of consortium members reduce training costs, compared with an average for the charity sector of 45 percent.

Martin Baker, Founder and Chief Executive of the Charity Learning Consortium, which supported the research, said: “Using learning technologies is a never-ending journey with inevitable highs and lows. Charities have also never faced so many challenges, and their vital services have never been more greatly needed, so it is not surprising to see both lows and highs in this report. But it is comforting to know that charities that are leading the way when it comes to harnessing the benefits of learning technologies can share their expertise within the consortium. Sharing knowledge and experience collaboratively in this way has real power, and our members are noticeably reaping the rewards.”

Laura Overton, Founder and Chief Executive of Towards Maturity, said, “This report provides some useful insights into the learning of charity organizations’ staff and volunteers and highlights ways in which real change can be made. By encouraging leaders to work together with learners to empower and engage them, charities will be able to see improvements across performance and transform their way of working.”

Lions Direct Limited hosts workshop on what it takes to succeed in business.

Direct sales and marketing expert Lions Direct hosted a company-wide workshop on the elements for business success. Its main recommendations were:

1. Do not wait for the right time. The Maidstone-based firm contends that to be successful people need to take the plunge sooner rather than later. Too many people make excuses and do not follow through on their dreams by waiting for the time to be just right.

2. Expand comfort zones: Lions Direct chief executive Kamil Nosal believes that broadening comfort zones is imperative for people to learn, grow and develop.

3. Do not fear failure: Kamil Nosal argues that if people waste energy focusing on the fear of failure, it will diminish their chance of bouncing back when the inevitable happens. Lions Direct urges its staff and contractors to embrace failure and use it as a learning experience to do better next time.

4. Great communication: the direct sales and marketing specialist argues that being an effective communicator helps people to connect with others, forge strong business relationships and go far in life.

5. Loyalty: Kamil Nosal believes that it is important to stay loyal to people who have been there through every step of the journey to success.