Shortlisted - Excellence in Learning Award

NobleProg UK works as part of the KPMG consortium of learning specialists, delivering high quality learning events to the UK Civil Service.
 

At the National Learning Services Awards 2024 one of our projects was honoured in the most prestigious category ‘Excellence in Learning’, having been shortlisted from many entries.
 

The Project

NobleProg delivered a large-scale and far reaching upskilling project focusing on essential Digital and Agile Training to over 500 delegates from Local Authorities across England. 

In late 2021 NobleProg was given the exciting brief - can you design, create and deliver Agile training to be available to Local Authorities up and down the country but it needs to be, “Project management’ training without being specifically for project managers”. 

The potential size of the project and the significant interest from many different Local Authorities necessitated multiple scoping calls with the client (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) with expert help from the inhouse Local Digital team. Together we worked to define the ambition of the project, to fully understand the vision and how we would achieve the outcome ‘To provide a deeper understanding of agile and digital in a local government context.’ 

Our pre-course analysis determined that the majority of delegates were likely to already hold a digital role in their council but had probably not previously undertaken any agile training. The majority of delegates answering ‘not confident’ or ‘somewhat confident’ in response to their current level of understanding around; the benefits of 'agile delivery’; the differences between 'agile' and 'waterfall' approaches to project management; and the differences between 'Scrum' and 'Kanban' methodologies within the context of agile delivery. 

The Headline Outline for the bespoke two day course was agreed as follows: After exploring digital and agile, mindset and behaviours, the course will explore some of the main agile methods, techniques and tools and show how they can be used effectively in digital delivery. The course will also consider the latest guidance in the UK public sector around agile delivery encompassing both the GDS standard and the local digital declaration. 

Deliveries commenced in November 2022, and continued into 2024. Delegates joined from Local Authorities all across England, including: Bath and NE Somerset, East Devon District, Southampton City Council, Kent County Council, NHS Gloucestershire, Wigan Council, North Tyneside Council, Luton Council, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London Borough of Newham, Gateshead Council, North East Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Richmond and Wandsworth, Warrington Borough Council , Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Kent County Council, Plymouth City Council, London Borough of Lewisham, Essex County Council, Worcestershire County Council, Nottingham City Council, North Herts Council, Northumberland County Council, Ipswich Borough Council, Nottingham City Council, Canterbury Christ Church University, Bracknell Forest Council, City of Lincoln, Cheshire East, Tendring District Council, Adur and Worthing, Wirral Council, Suffolk County Council… 

Individually the audience was anticipated to be diverse with delegates describing their current role as performance and data analyst, person with responsibility for web content on the public facing website, development and e-services manager, digital services team leader, service redesign analyst, QA test lead, applications delivery manager, digital services developer, systems and information officer, UX designer, cyber policy leader, project and programme coordinators and managers. 

The Learning Impact

How to measure the impact of the project was a key focus in our planning work right from the beginning. We worked closely with the client to create a bespoke evaluation process, with measurable outcomes for their reporting. The efficiency of the impact reporting was also critical to ensuring evidence based continual improvement (which in turn was reflected in the impact assessment results). NobleProg hosted the evaluative process, working very closely with DLUHC administration staff to coordinate the events. This close liaison also ensured that attendance was effectively managed and spaces were immediately filled, as the waiting list quickly grew. This ensured maximum cost efficiency for the client as events were not under-subscribed. 

As well as numerative feedback on specific points, delegates were given the opportunity to provide a free text response to the following question: How will you apply what you have learned in your role or organisation? 

“Agile is a very mis-used word in my organisation. I'll use what I've learned to challenge things that are being badged as 'agile' when in fact they're not. Proper application will help our project teams to work at pace which is what the organisation is seeking. I will endeavour to share what I've learned with colleagues.” 

“I started applying it immediately! I am creating a new data quality strategy and agile will be useful for it.” 

“Apart from using the agile methods in future/current projects, we are thinking of applying the sizing exercise retrospectively to end up with points, timings and costs to understand how future projects can be costed and timed.” 

“Look at implementing scrum framework in phase 2 of a current project I am involved in - once the product has gone live there will be further work that needs to be implemented and this will be a good opportunity to use either scrum or kanban model.” 

“I have a project coming up that will is ideal for putting in sprint format, so I am looking forward to be able to apply what I learned right away” 

“Roles better defined, apply Phases of Build and 3-5-3 Formation and all the wonderful and practical skills” 

“I will use the frameworks and now understand KANBAN better and SCRUM also I will create conversations with colleagues and managers and question why we are so paperwork heavy.” 

“This session worked really well as a refresher on agile and, in particular, to re-affirm the value in working this way - this will mean I go back to my organisation and make an increased effort to work agile and encourage others to do the same” 

“Start using agile methods to deliver digital projects and shift the organisation's culture towards agile.” 

“I am already planning to use this in a fostering framework recommissioning project I'm leading .” 

“My new and up and coming projects will be transformed :)” 

“How we structure delivery of solutions - focussing on the incremental approach rather than tackling everything and delivering little. Increased collaboration in teams. Lots!” 

What these comments, and hundreds more like them, told the client is that this transformative project delivered skills and capability that was a) desperately needed and implemented, in many cases, immediately and b) resulted in efficiencies and improvements to service which greatly enhanced the quality of work whilst also producing cost savings. 

The impact can also be measured in other ways - a repeated pattern in the feedback data was that many delegates attended the course on the recommendation of a previous delegate. Further, one of the strengths of the course was its ambition to bring different local authority’s employees together to interact and share experience. This was a real success. The attention to detail on the quality and relevance of the content and delivery was key to achieving this impact. This was the result of not just engaging an expert with exceptional subject matter knowledge but also someone who deeply understands the mechanics of effective learning. 

The feedback data in response to the question ‘What did you like most about the training’ repeatedly referenced the style of learning: 

“The practical nature and application of the learning, learning by doing I find so much more effective than just reading text or listening to a presentation.” 

“Being taught at a pace and style which helps you remember.” 

“The interactive activities for understanding the value of and practising agile techniques” 

“Pace, structure, ability to share and ask questions as and when and simple activities which were able to demonstrate principles.” 

“The trainer kept the course interesting, he didn't just read from the slides but used real-life examples and related the content to local government.” 

The numerical scores (across all deliveries) for the expert were predictably outstanding. On a score metric where 5 is exceptional, 4 is very good, 3 is good, 2 is satisfactory and 1 is poor the NobleProg expert scored Teaching Style 4.8, Subject Knowledge 4.9, Rapport 4.7, Prep and Organisation 4.9. 

Finally, the impact can be seen in the responses to the following questions: How will you apply the things you have learnt? 100% of the delegates selecting either or both ‘with my team’ and ‘when I lead a new project’ 

When will you apply the things you have learnt? The most popular answer was ‘this week’, then ‘this month’ and then ‘within the next 3 months’. This reinforced the free text responses which highlighted that the enhanced capability would impact, in many cases, existing or very soon to commence projects. 

“Everything - the best course I've ever been on! Experience and ability of the course leader, content, pace, use of practical examples and interactive activities to cement learning.”