PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERSHIP AT ITS BEST

We began working with Wigan Council on Management Apprenticeships in 2021, having already established a strong relationship through the delivery of apprenticeship programmes in health and early years. The learning and development opportunities already available to the Wigan Team were exceptional and encompassed systems such as MINDSET and COACHING CULTURE to support employees throughout the business with their development goals. We wanted to ensure that employees took advantage of the learning that was already available to them and began a process of mapping existing learning opportunities to the knowledge, skills and behaviours within the standard.

We developed a flexible learning journey which linked apprenticeship learning modules to relevant internal learning to embed and contextualise learning for apprentices. The Wigan Team fully supported the programme’s development, and subject specialists were identified to provide expertise on Wigan-specific skills content, as well as delivery and co-delivery of skills workshops to support the taught knowledge sessions.

Projects are a big part of the level 5 programme. Once the learning journey was established, the Be Wigan Leadership programme was born. As part of the launch strategy for the programme, information sessions for managers of apprentices are offered to enable managers to fully understand the commitment required of the learners and how they could mentor and support learners through the learning journey. These information sessions also provided a great opportunity to start conversations around projects that apprentices could manage that would provide real business benefits and positively impact the organisation.

This early engagement with line managers has been imperative to the apprenticeship’s success. It is a collaborative approach, and managers have been keen to work with the learners, and our trainer-assessors provide excellent opportunities for developing skills and projects that support the achievement of organisational aims and objectives.

The learner induction for the programme has also been aligned to the DEAL 2030, creating our own ‘Apprenticeship Deal’ for each of the cohorts that clarifies the learners’ commitments and expectations and links these commitments directly to the Wigan Behaviours.