View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

PART ONE: LEARNING TODAY
Supporting graduate mentoring
Many organisations have sought to upskill their workforce through appointing
graduates. We are also addressing the development we give to graduates who are
seeking a career in housing with our graduate employment mentoring scheme, (GEMs).
The GEM Programme is an internship programme based on whole person learning. The
programme enables students to be carefully selected for values and behaviours which
are aligned with the values of the partners who provide internships. Students also enter
into a twelve month period of experiential learning which challenge their problem
solving, personal development and influencing skills. Workplace mentors are trained by
the Centre for Partnership to help students in their workplace learning. As an accredited
CIH centre, the Centre for Partnership provides cognitive learning in the form of six
residential academies which allow the graduates to convert their degrees to CIH
qualifications and membership. Finally, the GEM students are prepared as tomorrow’s
leaders with intensive personal and leadership development support including the use of
assessment centres, psychometric assessment and feedback. Group projects are also
introduced to develop the learners’ team-working skills.
From ‘good to great’ and systems thinking
Underpinning our philosophy and practice, Incommunities has adopted the Collins
framework in ‘good to great’ plus systems thinking. This has been central to developing
the Incommunities Building Blocks of Leadership. This model is an important
development for us in two ways. Firstly the Building Blocks model is being used to
assess all of our staff teams’ alignment with the values of Incommunities. Secondly the
Building Blocks model recognises the pivotal role of managers in educating and
developing their teams. We are confident that this twin focus on values and technical
mastery, plus the leaders’ critical role in developing staff, will deliver a true customer
focus to our service, as well as effectiveness and efficiency. The GEM and CIH certificate
programmes are already delivering returns and we are confident our approach will be a
worthwhile investment for staff.
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