We have commented frequently on our views in relation to ensuring long term and sustained improvements in adviser capabilities in the lead up to and beyond the Retail Distribution Review such as:
- ensure that all developmental activities across the business are visible
- enable the promotion and deployment of a range of learning activities to individuals
- ensure that learning activities can be tracked
We know from working with many of you that you are beginning to integrate new learning and development solutions into your business. We have also had positive feedback from advisers who have taken professional exams who say that they have “learned something that they have been able to apply to their day to day job!” We have discussed the need to take a more holistic approach to ongoing people development, particularly in view of the emphasis that the regulator is placing on CPD.
However, I get the feeling that we are sometimes placing a mental separation between some of our organisational training activities, which could have the potential to inhibit our ability to look at development in a more complete way. This is typically to do with the degree of interaction between Learning and Development and Training & Competence (T&C).
In some cases the organisational training plan has been clearly distinct from the T&C plan. The training plan has perhaps dealt with professional qualifications, product knowledge and skills development whilst the T&C plan has dealt with the demonstration of competence against a set of prescribed competencies. However, does this separation between the two seem logical?
It is ALL development and if we truly want to create a training environment which provides a global view of each individual’s personal development needs and progress, we need a different mindset. I know that you are now thinking “that’s all very well, but we need to report specifically on T&C activities for the regulator.” I agree with you. We do need to ensure that our reporting capability allows us to identify that we are meeting acceptable benchmark standards.
But, consider this. Our approach to T&C should begin to reflect an effective and sensible approach to learning and development; it should consider the needs of the organisation and of the individual - It’s not called a Personal Development Plan for nothing.... In addressing this, the range of options available and the opportunity for the individual to influence their own development will be key.
Many T&C plans are very effective in scoping out formal tracks along which individuals proceed. The idea that the individual might want to jump off the track and “explore” at some point is not necessarily considered. It’s a bit like the difference between putting someone in a car and telling them that they must proceed from Manchester to Birmingham down the M6 and that they must arrive by 2pm, or telling someone that they must proceed from Manchester to Birmingham but that they can choose which route they want to take.
In the context of T&C, taking time to explore might mean that the adviser decides that they want to access information on a subject that is of interest to them; that they want to attend a course or that they wish to collaborate with colleagues over a problem or news item. The fact that some of this “exploration” is what might be described as informal learning does not make it any less valuable in the overall picture.
More about this in my next blog...
Alison Young - 4th March 2010