"I would recommend KnowledgeBrief to any organisation looking for impactful leadership and management training. "
Ronja Torspecken, People Development Manager at Young Lives vs Cancer, spoke to us about the positive impact KnowledgeBrief’s leadership and management apprenticeships are having in the organisation.
The challenge
We’d identified a gap in our management teams skills and knowledge through the volume of basic HR queries coming through line-management to the HR teams.
We wanted to find a leadership and management training programme through the Levy that would equip our managers with the skills and knowledge to deal with these basic queries and understand how and when it’s appropriate to have difficult conversations with colleagues in the Young Lives vs Cancer way.
Another consideration for us, as with any organisation, is providing managers at all levels with the tools and skills they need to learn how to develop into future leaders. Using the Levy to inspire our future managers and leaders will help Young Lives vs Cancer to retain talent and support our mission to stop cancer destroying young lives.
Why did you choose KnowledgeBrief as your Leadership and Management Training partner?
It was important to find a provider who understood what we do at Young Lives vs Cancer, and who could tailor our programme to our needs.
We were also looking for a blended approach with apprentice learner support, training days or workshops and an online learning platform that had quality, applicable content.
One of the key-benefits of the KnowledgeBrief approach was the KBPRO® online learning platform.
We’d met with a number of other providers who offered more traditional programmes through executive coaching or a basic online learning platform, but the fact we could open up the KBPRO® platform to senior leaders and managers across the business outside of the Levy programme was fantastic and has been incredibly valuable.
As a KnowledgeBrief Apprenticeship Levy customer, we also get access to the fantastic senior leadership Innovation Programmes. These cross-industry events are a great platform to learn about the latest Hot Topics from leading academics and business leaders, which really complements our own senior leadership programmes to benefit the whole organisation.
Has the ‘20% off the job’ requirement for Levy apprentices been disruptive to Young Lives vs Cancer?
Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest challenges with the apprenticeship Levy.
To add to this challenge, working for a charity means remuneration is often lower than a corporate environment. We work a 35-hour week and are incredibly conscious that our colleagues stick to this to ensure we balance work and pay out as much as possible.
Effectively, the Levy’s 20% off-the-job requirement means each apprentice taking one full day per week out of their working week.
While it’s still a challenge, we’ve created a top-down approach to mitigate this, with managers prioritising learners’ study commitments where possible.
What has helped to reduce this challenge further is KnowledgeBrief’s supportive approach to the 20% with learning that can be undertaken in bitesize chunks on a daily basis.
They hold regular onsite Training Days to minimise disruption, the Professional Learning Advisors are in regular contact with apprentice line-managers to ensure apprentices are kept on track, and our programmes have been designed with a focus on work-based learning, around our priorities.
What impacts has the programme had at Young Lives vs Cancer?
There are several benefits which can be directly linked back to our leadership and management apprenticeships.
Individual teams and their managers on the programme have always had a process for resource planning, but using the frameworks and methodologies from the programme, they’ve now been able to update and formalise these.
Our managers and leaders at all levels have grown in their roles and are more confident as a result.
The investment in our managers and leaders has really improved retention rates in learner groups which is great news for CLIC Sargent.
We are also in the process of creating a skills sharing platform where learners can start to mentor the next group down and spread knowledge across the organisation.
If you were to recommend KnowledgeBrief what would you say?
KnowledgeBrief provide a great blended, but balanced approach centered around the excellent KBPRO® platform which is easy to navigate; you can always find what you need.
Their approach to support is refreshing. Whether this is for our learners or through the well-managed and proactive account management. I feel confident they are on top of things, I never have to chase for information, and they have Young Lives vs Cancer and our learners’ best interests at heart.
I would recommend KnowledgeBrief to any organisation looking for impactful leadership and management training.