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How can I get started?
As you start to browse the prospectus, you can click on an individual course to find out more. You’ll find out what the activity involves, the subject matter it covers, the expected outcomes and how to make a booking.
The digital elements of these courses are bite-sized and accessible, allowing you to engage with them when, how and where you choose, conveniently slotting them around your work commitments. These activities include everything from videos and self-assessments through to quizzes and online tutorials.
These are often accompanied by a workshop; either face to face or virtual. These are social learning activities, rather than traditional classroom learning. The focus here is on discussing and practising, as a group, what you covered in the digital activities that preceded the workshop. This is an opportunity for you and your colleagues to support one another in your development, reflect on what you’ve learned and think about how best to use your new-found skills back in the workplace.
What is the Government Campus?
The Government Campus brings together all existing government academies and training programmes as well as the functions’ and professions’ own training curriculums.
The Campus is designed to be a single point of entry into all available Civil Service training. Individuals will be able to browse all available learning and development opportunities, plot out their learning journey, sign up for courses and find out more about other opportunities from across the organisation. This final point is particularly powerful; giving civil servants access to training which is already available elsewhere – but which they might not previously have known about or been able to access.
One curriculum, five strands
The new Government Curriculum comprises 5 distinct but complementary strands. The idea is for you to take charge of your own development by selecting what you need from each curriculum area to build the skills, knowledge and networks required for your role. These will include the universal skills required right at the start of your time in the Civil Service, as well as the more specialist skills you will likely come to rely on as your career develops.
Every single activity within the learning frameworks has been mapped to these five strands, making it even easier to find what you need when browsing this prospectus.
Foundations of public administration
Providing the universal skills and knowledge every civil servant needs to be a confident and capable administrator.
This opening section of the curriculum provides training that is made available to every single civil servant. It comprises the essential skills that everyone requires in order to work effectively as a public servant.
That means it covers a huge range of skills and competencies; everything from basic digital skills, customer service and time management through to effective communication, data interpretation and influencing skills.
Throughout this part of the curriculum, the aim is to provide colleagues with the fundamental basics of a particular skill, not to turn them into an expert (not yet, at least).
Working in government
Providing an understanding of how our government works and developing the skills to work effectively within a political environment.
This section of the curriculum provides learners with a comprehensive understanding of the history and structure of government and how it works with the rest of the public sector. Training within this area offers the opportunity to put this new-found knowledge to best use within the context of a particular job role.
Topics covered within this part of the curriculum include local government, judicial reviews, propriety and ethics. There’s also the opportunity to learn about Parliament and the legislative process, government finance and data protection.
Leading and managing
Developing the skills, knowledge and networks required to lead and manage within the Civil Service.
This section of the curriculum houses all the courses designed to help people, wherever they might work within the Civil Service, achieve the levels of leadership and management skills required within the organisation.
The training activities contained here provide civil servants with the fundamental skills required of line managers, helping them understand how to be effective leaders who can develop the emerging talent around them. This means it covers everything from enabling high performance and providing feedback through to interviewing skills and leading during times of change.
Specialist skills
Developing specialist expertise from day one in a Civil Service profession through to becoming an experienced, expert practitioner.
Quite simply, this section of the curriculum contains training by the professions, for the professions. This is where career frameworks can be fully mapped out, allowing civil servants to access the training required to build vital specialist and technical skills throughout their working life. With training often aligned to a professional body, the curriculum offers plenty of opportunities for assessment and accreditation, providing reassurance that learners have indeed developed the specialist capabilities that their role requires.
In specialist areas ranging from law, digital and commerciality through to data analysis, policy-making and procurement, this section of the curriculum provides access to extensive career accreditation pathways. Each represents a profession’s approach to build and assure their members’ capabilities.
Domain knowledge
Providing highly specific insights into working on public policy in a particular area.
The final section of the curriculum focuses on developing and honing an individual’s understanding of a specific specialist area, such as health, education or transport. This means understanding the factors that shape that area; its history, recent developments, current and emerging trends or public perception, for example. Having this solid grasp of the operational context will help learners to become highly competent team members, policy-makers and ministerial advisers.
What’s the benefit of the Government Campus?
The new Government Campus is set to transform learning and development for civil servants. It will be a constant presence throughout a civil servant’s career; providing everything from foundation level insights on their first day in the Civil Service through to the most advanced specialist training.
The learning frameworks
The learning frameworks represent a core component of the overall Government Campus offering. They cover 4 distinct areas of learning and development that are available to civil servants of all grades from AA to SCS.
First up is the cross Civil Service curriculum. Managed by KPMG, this contains over 150 courses, all contextualised to reflect the particular requirements of working in the Civil Service.
These cover traditional subject areas such as policy-making, communication and personal effectiveness. In addition, the course line up is continually evolving to take into account more contemporary considerations such as remote leadership, cyber security and data analysis, for example.
KPMG also oversees a substantial portfolio of off the shelf learning products. This contains hundreds of ready made courses, where no Civil Service contextualisation is required, as well as a vast array of technical accreditations and qualifications.
Bespoke learning forms part of the EY framework, offering departments, functions and professions the opportunity to design learning activities that meet their specific needs.
The second part of this framework focuses on civil servants’ personal development by providing access to coaching services. It also offers access to a range of subject matter experts who can provide valuable insights and support in highly specialised areas.
Open course schedule
Did you know there are hundreds of digital tutorials and virtual workshops that learners can book themselves on to?
The Open course schedule is your go to page on Prospectus online to access the wide range of courses available to you. Updated weekly, the open course schedule has available dates for the upcoming months – to help you fit learning into your schedule.
Curriculum Update
The range of learning activities currently on offer across the Civil Service is constantly evolving. With civil servants expected to work in different ways, incorporating new ideas, approaches and technologies, it’s vital that our learning offer continues to keep pace.
That’s why we work with our learning consortium partners to keep extending and refining our offer, deploying new courses and programmes to meet the emerging demands being made of our Civil Service departments. Curriculum Update is the place to see all the new courses added each month.
What’s in it for me?
Being able to browse our entire prospectus should hopefully spark your interest in particular courses, encouraging you to take greater ownership of your own learning and development needs. You’ll be able to undertake training when it’s most convenient for you and to decide when you think you’ve done enough to justify moving on to another part of the curriculum. This instantly transforms training from a potential chore into a route to more interesting roles and possible promotions.
If you’re a manager, the prospectus should also serve as a constant reminder of your responsibilities for developing the people around you and your options for doing so. You’ll be able to direct colleagues more with greater confidence to the resources that will benefit them the most.
Want to learn more?
This online prospectus relates to just the learning frameworks. In time, every single training activity within those frameworks will appear here.
And if you want to explore what else exists outside the learning frameworks, simply click here to browse the full Government Campus offering.
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