How can we make learning and development fit for purpose for 21st century public services?
Here’s my pitch for GovCamp Cymru 2017.
Last year I pitched my first ever unconference session at GovCamp Cymru, where I looked at whether behaviour change theory could help to embed ideas generated at unconferences into organisations. It provoked some really useful discussions that stuck with me as I got to grips with behaviour change for the Wales Audit Office’s national study on the topic. I remarked at the time that I found it strange that I hadn’t come across anyone in Learning and Development at the event, especially as it offers a unique opportunity to get a broad range of views from people who work at a wide array of organisations.
A lot has changed since last year’s event. I’ve moved country and I’ve left the Wales Audit Office to start a new job as the Learning Events Co-ordinator for Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults. We’re a charity that supports organisations to access, understand and apply evidence in social care. So this year I’m planning on being the token learning and development practitioner in order to better understand what good looks like.
Better learning for better public services
I’ve recently blogged on how public service learning is still hierarchical — it flows from the expert to participants. An unconference, where participants make the agenda by pitching what they’d like to talk about, seems like a good place to challenge this thinking. And it may also be a good place to start thinking about what different models of face to face learning might look like — it’s about as different from traditional training as you can get. But they in turn are difficult to evaluate, as there are no set learning outcomes. How can we best demonstrate that they result in real change?
Going digital
Public services are also getting to grips with what digital public services look like. Yet we’re making very little use of online learning. To get a better idea of the good practice that’s out there, I’ve signed up to Codecademy, which takes you through a practical learning journey to help you learn how to code. I’ve also signed up for a free course with the Open University, which mainly involves reflecting on text and video. Could gaming also provide a more experiential and hands on experience, as Chris Bolton has outlined in this post on sustainable decision making and Karoliina Korppoo talked about for TED? And if so, could we make better use of this within public services?
However, knowledge sharing is a social process. We build our understanding of something by discussing it with other people, seeing how their narrative works with ours, and we develop a more informed understanding. How can we ensure that we don’t lose this as we move online? Jisc’s Student Digital Experience tracker suggests that people in both Higher and Further Education like their digital systems to complement but not replace face-to-face teaching. How can we best do that?
And is there a more formal role for our informal learning? Can social media and peer to peer networks play a bigger part in our approach?
Over to you
If you’ve got some ideas about this or if you’d like to discuss things further at GovCamp Cymru, it would be great to talk to you about any issues that you’re facing or good work that you’re doing. There’s strength in numbers, and hopefully by pooling our ideas, we can really get to grips with how we can improve learning and development in public services.
