Learning and Development – Diane

In an effort to gain valuable coaching training to help support the development of staff wellbeing, HR Officer Diane Hardiman has been undertaking a Level 3 Learning and Development apprenticeship.

Beginning the apprenticeship in July 2018, Diane is looking forward to achieving her professional qualification when her apprenticeship concludes in July 2019.

Diane said:

“I do love learning, so for me to get back into a library and have a real old rummage around theories and development is great. I love that HR are letting me do it; it’s good to gain the capacity to deliver the training and development ideas that I have.

My apprenticeship is all about how to pull together training and development programs and how to look at delivery from a strategic point of view. There is also a coaching side, which opens up coaching training for me to teach.

The kind of programs I’m wanting to pull together are around staff health and wellbeing, performance management and helping staff continually improve at their jobs.”

HR Business Partner Lauren Yates is Diane’s manager. Lauren works in close collaboration with Diane and provides guidance for her when performing tasks as part of the HR team.

Lauren said:

“Diane joined RNN Group in November 2017. She commenced her Level 3 apprenticeship to help support her with her work on staff development and in order to build on our current staff opportunity offering and enhance provision further.

The qualification has made a significant impact which was seen at the last cross-College training day which Diane fully organised, coordinated and managed on the day, including post-event evaluation.

Diane is always coming up with new ideas and suggestions and has the freedom to try things out and make changes where desired and needed. Diane produces reports on staff development on a regular basis and uses this information to both inform and influence strategic decisions.”

Lauren added:

“Diane has taken on the role of a trainer on topics such as equality and diversity to employees and is a government-accredited PREVENT trainer. Diane has also restructured the staff induction, making it more engaging and informative and the feedback has been fantastic!

I’m really pleased with the work Diane is doing on learning and development. There is a lot more to be done on how we support the development of our workforce, which Diane will be an integral part of, and she has our full support to progress her studies further onto the level 4/5 course.”

Diane also provided advice for anyone thinking of taking an apprenticeship.

“You don’t stop learning when you leave school; I think these options should be considered by everyone.

People normally associate that you’ll do x, y and z in a classroom repetitively, but my apprenticeship hasn’t been that – it’s been doing something that I really want to do at a pace that I’m comfortable with and can fit around my job.

If you’ve started an apprenticeship, you’ve got to discipline yourself. You need to stick to what you say you’re going to do. Make sure you put the work in and stick to your own deadlines. Make sure you’re learning and doing your research and, most importantly, enjoy it!”