How Ignite helped a Further Education College plan to achieve outstanding levels of engagement with employers.
Can you really achieve change in a day?
Yes you can! The day I spent with the senior team at the college was more than enough time to spark new patterns of thinking and introduce a fresh way of doing things.
What was the challenge?
A recent Ofsted audit had recommended that the college could put more focus on employer engagement. They wanted to tackle this quickly and effectively. The Principal was also keen to explore ways to involve more of her team in creative problem solving.
Where did you begin?
I used the Ofsted inspection guidelines to create an initial framework which the team could measure their college against. This helped give participants a real understanding of exactly what they were being expected to achieve.
How did participants react to this?
As you can imagine, the energy in the room at that stage was very low. I then introduced some Insights on other colleges in their area that had rated very highly on employee engagement.
What effect did this have?
It changed everything. They realised that reaching the Ofsted standards was not only easily achievable, but also that it was the very least they should be aiming for. This really stretched their thinking. It was great to be a part of.
Did the college respond to the Ignite approach?
Yes. They seemed to really enjoy the exercises and activities. At one stage everyone played a different cog in a machine (complete with appropriate noises) to experience first-hand what it was like to deal with demanding customers.
Was the Principal pleased with the outcome?
This quote says it all!
“This is the first time I have worked with Ignite and they surpassed all my expectations. We needed to breathe some life into our thinking on employer engagement in the College. Jenny did a large amount of background preparation for the workshop. Her methods and tools provided inspiration and ideas for the day and we left feeling invigorated and excited about our plans. I also left with a clear list of items for the employer engagement strategy and the action plan.”
