View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOR THE FUTURE
Learning and skills development at Incommunities
In response to this Incommunities has embarked on a number of projects that will
address learning and skills development. We signed a skills pledge to bring everyone we
employ to at least a Level 2 NVQ, (equivalent to GCSE Grades A to C) in their area of
work. We carried out a skills audit of existing staff to test the extent of the technical
knowledge gap and as a result we have developed a parallel programme of an
NVQ/housing certificate with a focus on housing and related law. The qualification is
accredited by CIH. It uses live case studies; and staff are evaluated at every stage. It also
includes critical evaluation of policy and practice to enable staff to contribute to the
development of practice within the organisation. NVQs are an approach that fit flexibly
between CIH qualifications and the basic day to day training programme. This approach
enables existing staff to learn in groups. This approach can be evaluated, accredited and
can provide learning credit for accredited CIH qualifications.
The programme has been developed to balance tutor led input (teaching) and
experiential learning (doing). This approach will enable more experienced and
knowledgeable officers to demonstrate their knowledge and their less experienced
colleagues to expand their practical knowledge. In time experienced and novice officers
will raise and improve their level of housing specific knowledge, their legal
understanding and they will transfer this knowledge to their work.
The investment is substantial from both sides. It requires a strong financial commitment
to the programme, a significant time investment and the support from leaders and
managers. It also requires the committment of staff which has helped make it happen.
The programme has been developed in conjunction with Dutton Fisher and Associates
(a housing specific education and training provider), and KeyHouse (an organisation with
a strong legal team); and input from leaders within the business to ensure that
knowledge levels increase across the organisation and that learning directly benefits our
customers.
We have faced some initial teething problems with the programme as it quickly became
clear that this was a big ask of staff on top of their workloads. Many staff ,who have
not been in education for some time, were very anxious about going through a process
involving evaluation. However, as people have moved through the programme and
received good grades for their first assignments, we are finding that people are now
able to apply their enhanced knowledge to every day work situations and are becoming
better able to meet our customer needs.
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