Leeds City Council and QA's Managed Learning Service
Responsible for one of the fastest-growing cities in the UK, Leeds City Council (LCC) wanted to ensure its employees had the skills necessary to support their wide-ranging roles and responsibilities. To align staff development to its organisational goals, the council chose to partner with QA for a strategic Managed Learning Service.
Meet our client: Leeds City Council
Situated in the middle of the United Kingdom, with a diverse population of 750,700, Leeds is the third-largest city in England and Wales and the largest employment centre in the region. As part of its responsibilities to the local community, Leeds City Council supports a broad range of activities and initiatives. Visit the Leeds website here.
Leeds City Council's learning needs
To fulfil its obligations to the community efficiently, LCC's workforce required skills in a variety of fields, and the council wanted to give employees access to a broad portfolio of learning that would support their development in line with its organisational goals.
With the widest portfolio of authorised training courses in Europe, and access to further courses available through its extensive network of approved partner suppliers, QA was ideally placed to support LCC’s objectives through the provision of a Managed Learning Service.
QA worked with LCC to identify a number of development themes central to its organisational goals and then aligned courses to these themes:
Customer service: Covering the full spectrum, from front-line interaction to specialist customer contact, locality working and community engagement.
Management and leadership development: Including leadership, soft skills and front-line supervision.
Life skills: To support front-line staff as their jobs require greater flexibility and the ability to utilise information and communications technology (ICT), and to record information and communicate effectively.
Service innovation: Enhancing the management skills required to deliver change and transformation, and supporting professional development in the areas of procurement, contract management, and working in partnerships.
New ways of working: Developing new ways to harness technology, working outside of traditional office environments, and supporting cultural change.
“Working in partnership with QA has strengthened the learning we can offer our 15,000+ employees, which is crucial at a time of real change for our organisation and local government.”
Graham Sephton, HR Strategy Team Leeds City Council
QA's online learning management system
We streamlined access to the portfolio of training by introducing an online learning management system. It enables users to access the entire catalogue of available training and eLearning modules, request training, and book onto courses. The tool also helps managers to capture and manage associated costs and budget information.
Training has been delivered using a variety of methods, including instructor-led, eLearning, and blended deliveries incorporating both face-to-face learning and online learning at the employee's own pace. We produced bespoke eLearning, aligned to the LCC environment and branded with its colours and logo.
How QA helped to make a difference:
Over the last 12 months, QA has delivered:
- 178 learning events
- 3,257 days of training
- Training to 2,311 delegates
“Very knowledgeable, approachable and effective in imparting the learning.”
LCC employee
Evaluation forms indicate that 97% of delegates were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the learning undertaken. And during this period, the contract has achieved cost savings of 39%.
The online learning management system, procured through the Managed Learning Service contract, has provided a far more effective and efficient way of promoting and delivering learning to managers and staff.