City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (CBMDC)
Evolve Learning & Talent Management Project Team
Briefly describe the initiative/ project/ service
In 2016, Bradford Council started the ‘Make better use of technology to deliver learning’ project. The primary aim of this project was to implement a modern Learning & Talent Management System to support training to be delivered in a wider range of ways using technology to minimise the impact upon resources e.g. making use of distance learning, video guides, webinars, etc.
The project also aimed to reduce the strain on resources by automating a number of manual processes along the ‘learner journey’ and make learning more visible and accessible to staff across the Council.
The Evolve Learning & Talent Management Project Team successfully delivered the ‘Evolve Learn’ part of this project in September 2016 and ‘Evolve’ is now embedded across the Council. The system has grown each month in terms of functionality and the team are now working on phase 2 of this project (Evolve Performance) which is to support our changing Performance Management strategy within the Council.
Why do you think it should win this award?
The implementation of this project has redesigned how learners access development opportunities, giving them immediate access to training and development at the click of a few buttons. This has reduced the effort and time required to book onto training and the automated processes have saved our admin team countless hours following manual processes.
The system gives managers direct access to viewing/reporting their team’s training records and gives managers the ability to assign courses to their team.
This project has also seen the emergence of training delivered in more modern ways e.g. elearning, webinars, video guides, etc which has eased the strain on trainer resources and has made learning available when required rather than being limited to a classroom at a designated time. The use of social groups has encouraged more seamless cross-department working.
A huge win from this project is that we have been able to implement an eCommerce element to the system allowing external learners from across the District to access training and even pay for certain courses to generate an income to the Council. We are already working with partner organisations within the District so the system becomes a #teambradford system.
What are the key achievements?
I believe the three key achievements of this project have been;
1. Giving internal/external learners simpler and immediate access to their own learning and development records allowing them to take ownership of their Continuous Professional Development. Management also have oversight of their team’s individual CPD records and can assign and report on progress against both mandatory and developmental training.
2. Working in partnership with external organisations within the District. We have continuously developed the system so that external organisations can register and access their employees on the system in order to complete free and charged courses. This partnership working has provided external organisations with a Learning Management System to record their CPD records whilst allowing the Council to income generate by charging for certain course places.
3. The reporting element of the system has been a real game-changer both within the Council and within the District. Reports can be created on pretty much anything and scheduled to go out at set intervals. Having external learners accessing training through the system also allows us to report on how our training has impacted upon the District.
