We said we’d develop and deliver digital leadership training and practical skills.
Gary Bennett, Welsh Government User Research Lab manager, on why his CDPS course was the best he’s attended in 2 decades as a public servant:
CDPS has held 14 separate courses in 2021-22. We’ve trained more than 600 people from 80 organisations, over more than 50 course sessions, in Agile and user-centred design skills.
More than 200 public service leaders have attended or signed up to courses including:
Courses for public service staff include:
Our popular courses are providing the skills foundation for the digital transformation of public sector services in Wales.
5.4.1 Training: designed through co-creation and consultation
CDPS training in numbers in 2021-22:
- 75 people interviewed
- 125 surveys analysed
- 14 unique courses
- over 54 sessions
- participants from 80 public sector organisations
- over 600 people trained
Beginning with leadership training, CDPS built our skills programme in the same way we would any service: with an intensive research phase with potential users. The CDPS skills and capability team held a discovery including 75 interviews with representatives from 9 Welsh public sector organisations.
Through their research, the team identified leadership user needs to write a series of user stories such as this one:
‘As a leader in an organisation delivering Welsh public services I need to understand the transformational potential of digital and the importance of organisational agility, so I’m better equipped to lead the digital agenda’
Staff user stories included:
‘As someone who helps deliver Welsh public services I need to understand the fundamentals of user centred service design and Agile ways of working, so that I can fulfil my role in helping my organisation digitally transform’
5.4.2 Training: apprenticeships
CDPS commissioned a report in 2021 on how well digital apprenticeships in Wales aligned with Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) roles. The report showed strong alignment in areas such as cybersecurity, data and software engineering. There were gaps in user-centred design, product and delivery, quality assurance testing and IT operations.
In response to the report, CDPS has explored with stakeholders including further and higher education providers how to fill the DDaT skills gap the report identified. Digital apprenticeships were one way to provide those skills.
CDPS will raise awareness of the benefits of DDaT skills for people delivering Welsh public services. We will also help to create career pathways for people to join the DDaT professions.
5.4.3 Training: open competition for providers
CDPS held an open competition for training providers to answer the needs we identified in discovery. Among the providers whose services we’ve used are:
- the Welsh digital development agency Perago
- Llibertat, run by the former GOV.UK head of content Padma Gillen
- the School of Good Services, led by ex-head of UK government design Lou Downe
5.4.4 Training: a permanent resource in Campws Digidol
The courses CDPS has run so far have started to answer the immediate needs for digital training within the Welsh public sector. A potential next step is to establish a permanent training body. It would have a comprehensive, recurring curriculum covering skills in service development, user-centred design and Agile working for public sector leaders and staff.
In November 2021, CDPS awarded a contract to the digital design and strategy agency This Is Milk to deliver the alpha – exploratory – phase of this permanent training body. We’re provisionally (for now) calling the training provider Campws Digidol – ‘Digital Campus’.
The campus would form part of a wider training programme. Coaching and more communities of practice and interest could go with it.
5.4.5 Training: positive feedback
Our courses have attracted a lot of positive feedback from participants, encouraging us to do more. In feedback forms and on Twitter, people said things such as:
- ‘I usually hate training courses but with this one I was genuinely excited to join each session’
- ‘Loved the course… a good balance of practical and theory’
- ‘I have already started to use this with the wider team’
Lou Downe, ex-Head of Design for the UK government, describes the courses their (Lou’s preferred pronoun) School of Good Services puts on for CDPS.