Skills for Life Awards in Local Authorities

Following the launch of the Employers’ Organisation’s Local Authority Skills for Life Strategy and the linked Get On Award for Local Government, we were commissioned in May 2005 to undertake a baseline survey of Skills for Life support available to Authority employees. The majority of Authorities which responded were aware of the issues and keen to address them, and many positively welcomed the offer of help and support in developing their strategies.

Click here if you would like to see the Skills for Life Survey.

Following the survey we undertook follow-up activity in 2005-06 introducing, explaining and promoting the Strategy and GO Award to Local Authorities in the North West and South West regions, and encouraging sign-up for the Award.

Key findings from the research included:

• The time required to obtain whole-organisational buy-in must not be underestimated
• The Award was often seen as a way of developing work that had been on the agenda for some time, and as a mechanism to consolidate organisational commitment and recognise the Authority’s efforts
• In most Authorities the key to success was for Corporate HR and Training Departments to take ownership of the process, and to align this with other staff training initiatives and kitemarks
• Some supervisors and first line managers were identified as people who needed greater awareness of SfL needs in order best to support their teams – and who sometimes identified that they had SfL issues themselves - but rarely had access to this type of training.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here (available shortly).