I’m delighted that today we’ve published the refresh of the Capabilities Plan. Over the last year I’ve repeatedly talked about the four priority areas – change leadership, digital, PPM and commercial.
Thank you
I am extremely proud of how far we have come to deliver a more modern and capable civil service.
- In the last year, over 280,000 of you assessed your skills against the Civil Service Competency Framework.
- 50,000 of you have improved your digital skills.
- 23,270 of you have improved your commercial awareness through e-learning on the Civil Service Learning website.
But there is more to do if we’re to build on and develop the skills we have in the Civil Service.
What more do we need to do?
Each and every one of us has a role to play in building a more capable Civil Service.
You should all be sitting down with your line manager to discuss your objectives and develop your personal development plan for the year ahead.
Once you’ve spoken to your line manager, make sure you take your 5 days of learning and development a year. Across the Civil Service that’s over 2 million days of learning and development that we’re investing in you, or put another way, over 5000 years! It shows just how seriously we take your development and the capability of our organisation.
And if you’re a line manager, it’s your responsibility to make sure that everyone who works for you takes their 5 days learning and development. This will form part of your line management objective.
We’ll help you to identify the learning opportunities that are right by you by introducing a “highly recommended” award for those courses which are critical to your learning.
So what are you waiting for? Check out the 'Achieve your potential' guide and the Civil Service Learning website and start working towards your 5 days of learning and development a year.
7 comments
Comment by Not Impressed posted on
What a lot of corporate speak. In the real civil service, for instance in DH, HR have given an external organisation the task of recruiting approx 40 HEO's to the DH . Unfortunately, from colleagues here in the department I understand that of DH civil servants applying for the roles, some who have been tp-ing into the roles to be filled for a couple of years, have been rejected at the psycometric test without their applications being read. There have been in excess of 800 applications and the rumour is of these 800 only 3 applicants from the DH have been successful in passing the first sift. It really does make you wonder if this exercise is correct in that application forms evidencing individual competencies and capabilites are not even being looked before a potential candidate is excluded. Could it possibly be that the intention is to exclude DH staff from the selection process? Will be an interesting one. Assuming all 3 of the DH candidates are successful, that will leave around 37 new to DH HEO's who will need training and development but hopefully won't require the unsuccessful applicants to show the new HEO's how to do the job they current DH statff are clearly not capable of doing. Oh, and no I didn't apply for one of the HEO posts.
Comment by Louise Alexander (DoH HR) posted on
Hi, on the basis we’re still in the middle of the recruitment process I can’t say much right now, but rest assured we’re grateful for your comment and we’ll keep communicating through the usual channels in DH.
Comment by Jimbo posted on
Dear Sir Bob
Fine, but once again, how about "addressing our concerns" about PMR?
Thanks
Comment by Mark Ifill posted on
The Capabilities Plan and better skills for the civil service makes good reading but who is it aimed at? I am an EO who works in a Jobcentre Plus office.
When applying for jobs im expected to give compentency examples which include examine complex information, commercial awareness and access the department procurement expertise, understand and explain department contracts also manage financial data and monitor resources against plans. There is no job role in a Jobcentre Plus office which covers these tasks. The courses available which could help me address my knowledge gap are for staff already working in District or Regional offices or who have a profession within DWP.
Again these new Operartional Delivery Qualifications will be for the minority not the majority off staff beacuse of the cost implication.
The CSL courses available to staff in my position are useful but basic so will not progress anyone.
Comment by Peter posted on
280,000 might have assessed their skills. Again. If my place of work is anything to go by, for possibly the third or fourth time in recent years. But, certainly where I work, the time spent completing these assessments feels wasted as there has never been any useful output or any resulting actions. The results are likely to be questionable anyway, with some colleagues rating themselves deliberately low in the hope of obtaining some meaningful training and others marking themselves highly in the hope of getting a new role or a promotion.
Comment by Diane Robinson (DWP HR) posted on
I agree it might feel harder in some job roles than others.
All the more reason to discuss how best you can improve your capability with your line manager, who understands your role in DWP, and will agree a development plan with you that will work for you and for the business.
Learning may not always be about doing courses, and you should share your aspirations and ideas of where you think you can develop your skills further with your manager. It's important to use the opportunity to make best use of our 5 days of development to improve our civil service skills.
Comment by I'm Never Gonna Be Employed Here So Why Hide The Truth? posted on
I have to say you may be overestimating the capacity of a depressing proportion of managers who are thriving (and acheiving promotion) by ticking boxes and banging on about Continuous Improvement while not actually knowing what their staff and team actually do all day.