Case study: Benefiting from learning with the community
Housing Association’s action learning brings benefits to the local community too
-
Business Challenge
Housing associations play a vital role in managing the housing stocks for local communities. Our client needed to develop their cross organisation management capability following a recent merger. At the same time they were keen to deliver on the organisation’s CSR commitments and their goal of ‘building successful communities’. Was there a way of satisfying these goals jointly?
-
Echelon’s Solution
We designed an innovative action learning management development programme that contributed to the organisation’s CSR goals and cross organisation relationships. The Community Project Challenge (CPC) profiled the organisation as a local employer of choice and built practical and sustainable relationships with local schools.
It was facilitated by Echelon coaches and supported with a programme website containing materials mapped to Cert.M, a learning log and project management tools.
-
Key Benefits
-
The CPC programme achieved dual organisational and training goals. It consisted of a specific time-bound project of around three months that supported a key CSR goal whilst also developing its managers to acquire an accredited qualification.
-
The programme supported a core aim of the Housing Association to become a local employer of choice by providing students with a structured work experience programme that attracted them to work with the Group and by providing helpful careers support to local schools.
-
For a recently merged organisation it facilitated a learning group drawn from across the organisation and from different work groups and organisational levels thus supporting organisational integration and community awareness.
-
The initiative raised the organisation profile by winning a UK Housing Award – in the ‘Developing Skills and Capacity’ category – for helping selected Year 10 and 11 pupils to develop skills, and gain nationally recognised qualifications in, property maintenance known as the ‘Skills for Life' project.
-
Course members become adept at using the online project management tools available on the project website to build helpful 'virtual' teams and relationships spanning several counties.
-
Course members experienced and learned skills for both team and one to one coaching which they subsequently used in their job roles.
Echelon’s approach
-
Research
Potential opportunities for community projects were reviewed for learning opportunities which could be imported back into the association. These were then aligned with the preferred management qualification to determine a likely fit.
A shortlist was then drawn up for prioritisation by management.
-
Buy in
Employees were briefed as to the four objectives of the project:
-
Bring benefits to the local community.
-
Extend participants’ personal development.
-
Transfer the learning back into the association for corporate development.
-
Support post merger integration.
Project members defined the project and drew up terms of reference
-
Training
Participants were drawn from diverse roles, from Deputy Finance Director through to a Senior Care Worker. CPC participants used action learning methods to manage this 'real time' project. Support was provided via a series of facilitated workshops, a programme coach and a bespoke project web site which fielded a variety of online project management and knowledge tools; a personal learning log provided evidence for qualifications and continuous professional development (CPD).
Each participant spent around five days on the project, which aligned to specific organisational objectives with prescribed learning outcomes, and was coached and facilitated throughout by Echelon consultants to:
-
build extra and intra-organisation partnerships
-
experience and evidence learning for accredited qualification
-
manage individual and team performance
-
support organisational change
-
deliver a sustainable solution.
-
Communication
The programme website provided a helpful communications hub and project tracking system for the dispersed participants. They were fulfilling their project responsibilities largely in their own time and the 24/7 accessibility was vital.
The participants themselves took on a communications role, acquiring specific communication expertise both in mastering the project management tools and also in preparing and delivering presentations to external stakeholders and the housing association senior management team.
-
Sustaining the initiative
The programme won a UK Housing Award – in the ‘Developing Skills and Capacity’ category – for helping selected Year 10 and 11 pupils at Droitwich Spa High School to develop skills, and gain nationally recognised qualifications, in property maintenance known as the ‘Skills for Life project’.
This management training opportunity for the housing association staff has succeeded in creating a sustained link with Droitwich Spa High School which provides employment and training opportunities in property maintenance for Year 10 and 11 pupils at the school.
Subsequently, through links which Droitwich Spa High School workers from the housing association’s maintenance company visited a Kenyan school and not only built a classroom but also trained pupils and teachers in maintenance of their school buildings.
Now that the project is into its second year, the housing association is building on its success by adding a partnership with another secondary school on the theme of community safety and work with several local primary schools.
-
Evaluating the outcome
For the housing association the programme provided an active, assessable, development opportunity that aligned with a recognised management qualification.
For the Community the housing association has become a beacon for innovative employment and training opportunities for Year 10 and 11 youngsters. These students learn a range of property maintenance skills as part of their curriculum and their two year course includes one day a week working with the housing association. Moreover, the housing association has agreed to take on at least one of the current pupils as a full apprentice when he/she leaves school.
The learning experience was evaluated over the 3 month period with
-
online evaluation sheets for events and materials
-
quarterly account management reports of comment and statistical website usage.
Echelon, Angles House, 210 Sheen Lane, London SW14 8LB; 020 8274 9965