Workforce Development & Training Framework

Context

The National Lottery Community Fund (the Fund) is the biggest provider of community funding in the UK, distributing money raised by the players of The National Lottery and its associated games. In 2023/24, they awarded over £686 million and funded a different community project every 8 minutes.

Eliesha is a long-term learning partner of NLCF; at the time of this project, the organisation was experiencing organisational changes and challenges that required extended, planned support. These changes included:

• Recent launch of a new, operationally significant IT system with widespread impacts on internal process and policies.
• Changes to the Fund’s leadership, including the arrival of a new Chief Executive.
• Increasing pressure to achieve cost saving targets and staff reductions.
• Review of the Fund’s strategic priorities and shaping of a new Strategic Framework.
• Factoring in recommendations made in the Triennial review by the Cabinet Office (the Fund’s sponsoring body).

Requirement

The primary objective was to provide learning and development services and deliver a diverse range of learning support and training interventions to the Fund’s workforce, that would be coordinated and consistent across their various UK offices. The key areas of focus were development support for leaders and managers and personal skills support for all teams.

Solution

As an experienced training provider with a large, national team of training facilitators and a library of proven training materials, Eliesha was perfectly placed to meet the Fund’s requirement with a range of delivery approaches. Their workforce benefitted from in-depth, face-to-face training including full-day workshops, 90-minute bitesize sessions and 3-hour masterclass events, whilst being supported with a catalogue of microlearning via online access to our pearls of wisdom®.

Initial topics were selected and contextualised from our existing library, or designed from scratch, with extensive collaboration between our L&D experts and the Fund’s stakeholders and project owners. The first selection of topics (and their learning focus, if specified) included:

In consultation with the Fund’s stakeholder following the initial wave of delivery, we modified our delivery approach to adopt a ‘flip’ or ‘flipped’ training model for future events, in order to minimise time away from the workplace for learners. The ‘flip’ approach breaks learning interventions down into three stages: ‘prepare’ (pre-course work accessed online), ‘practice’ (face-to-face workshop) and ‘apply’ (material to guide on-going development).

In order to more easily facilitate the ‘prepare’ stage, each learner was provided with an individual login to a white-labelled area within the Eliesha Learning Management System (LMS).

• Prepare
  • Introduction to theory and context of the workshop. Can include reading articles/looking at good practice models, completing questionnaires, identifying current challenges, watching videos, accessing links to online materials, etc. Some learning may involve in-depth self-analysis or require research with colleagues/stakeholders.
  • A booklet is completed before attending the workshop and, during the face-to-face ‘practice’ element, the facilitator reviews and discusses its content.
  • Example content: links to relevant articles, pearls of wisdom® online videos

• Practice
  • Take learning from first phase and put it into practice; try out ideas face-to-face in a safe workshop environment.
  • Example content: course workbooks/any associated materials, pearls of wisdom® online videos, discussion forum

• Apply
  • What participants do after they have practiced. May have some structured learning elements to it, completing tasks or may simply be putting to work the new skills you have started to develop
  • Example content: action plan templates, quizzes, case studies developed within programme, discussion forum

The ‘flipped’ classroom encourages participants to take more responsibility for their learning. Whilst it necessitates more design effort it can be more effective for certain workplaces and organisational contexts, and can also enable a greater focus on measurable outcomes, creating a learner journey that feels more tailored and relevant.

Topics embracing this ‘flip’ approach included:

Outcome

Extensive evaluation feedback has been positive across the board, with learners consistently referencing the relevance of workshop subject matter and the ease with which they were able to apply learning back in the workplace. Eliesha developed a strong partnership with the Fund, and the framework, which was initially awarded via competitive tender, was won again during its lifetime. Fund stakeholders have been highly satisfied with Eliesha’s expertise and performance, as evidenced by the testimonial below.

Testimonial

“Eliesha has proven to be an effective and efficient delivery partner, accommodating our specific design requirements, taking into account our organisational context and drivers. They are responsive to feedback and evaluation, deliver flexibly and respond to requests to flex content to audience need.

“Our organisational change agenda led to the identification of a skills gap and a requirement to develop a suite of sessions to support our people adapting to the on-going changes. The aim of these sessions is to upskill our people with a series of development opportunities aligned to the emerging needs of the organisation and our people, and to support the ambitions outlined in the strategic framework and enabling strategies.

“They have provided us with a suite of management development sessions, supported by their pearls of wisdom® product range, to support a backdrop of significant organisational change … also a suite of core development sessions to support personal effectiveness.

“For both of the above, Eliesha developed material to support a ‘prepare’, ‘practice’, ‘apply’ methodology to front load the learner experience to enable maximum participation in the face to face workshops, and to provide supporting material post session. In addition, Eliesha has picked up and delivered an internally developed resilience offering, supporting staff with resilience. We have also asked Eliesha to develop and deliver bespoke courses around advanced facilitation.“

– Organisational Development Manager – The National Lottery Community Fund (prev. The Big Lottery Fund)