Case Study: A national learning offer for Local Government
Using a design-research approach, I was able to deliver a cost-effective end-to-end implementation that supported local government colleagues to find and access training.
Task
The Local Digital Collaboration Unit at Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities provided a training offer to local authorities run by the Government Digital Service Digital Academy. However Covid-19 meant that these in-person trainings could no longer operate, and a new, interim solution was needed.
Action
- Developed understanding of government procurement
- Interviewed 7 Local Government colleagues and research at relevant meetups
- Review of 3 Local Authority self-developed training offers
- Learning platform content research
- User story development
- Mapping user stories to available training
- Negotiated favourable pricing with FutureLearn
- Collaborated with communications team to develop online ‘learning library’
- Developed back-office processes
- Developed metrics and Google sites dashboard to enable ongoing improvement
Learning
Through interviews with Local Government colleagues and attendance a community events i was able to understand and define the needs for training, not only based on skills but based on motivators and constraints experienced by those in need of training.
I learned that a major concern of colleagues was confidence in digital, agile and human centred design. This suggested a need not only for skills training but for general awareness and fast-paced learning.
I also learned that there was variance in the provision of digital training across Local Authorities. Often colleagues would need to learn ‘on the job’ and required training that would enable the to solve a problem for themselves as they encountered it. This meant that providing an offer that enabled users to self-serve would be a beneficial approach for the sector.
Result
In 4 months the team received applications from 100 colleagues across 68 Local Authorities.
Over a year the team delivered 350 FutureLearn licenses. The offer was well received by the sector and by individuals who stated that it had helped them to solve an issue with a challenge they were currently facing and helped them to deliver in their role more effectively.
Read more
Announcing our new digital skills training offer (DLUHC Digital Blog)
What our training offer is teaching us about the needs of local government (DLUHC Digital Blog)
Sam Villis 