The Government Property Agency

To get future ready, the Government Property Agency (GPA), an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, set up The GPA Skills and Specialisms Learning Programme to “raise capability” and “develop core and specialist skills required by all our people”.

The long-term project’s aims include: being pan-agency and fully inclusive of all employees regardless of role, grade, profession, working pattern and location, and inclusive to the needs of diverse individuals; defining and raising capabilities across the agency; and driving professional learning and specialist skills for those in specific, often technical, roles. A core aspect was the project’s flexibility and “self-directed and learner-centred approach with the employee at the heart”.

The programme incorporated experiential learning, shadowing, mentoring, coaching, collaboration, problem-solving, matrix working and action-learning set, and people are supported to become professionally accredited and to apply their learning to scenarios as well as in their roles. And the introduction of a new core skills learning framework has enabled a unified skills language to be used throughout the organisation. 

The programme is underpinned by a Skills Builder tool. The judges were particularly impressed by this tool because it “allows for a deeper set of quality conversations that support self-directed learning and the drive to the desired learning culture”. The “quick and easy” digital platform provides a personalised core skills data dashboard to inform each employee’s learning choices. This includes curated learning, micro-learning, sessions facilitated by in-house experts and e-learning modules.

The tool, the GPA says, encourages a motivating culture of skills ownership, showcases career opportunities across the agency and shows HR the organisation-wide skills capability, allowing the HR team to identify gaps and areas needing attention.

In the first year of the programme, metrics indicate a positive direction of travel: 64 per cent of the workforce have already opted to complete the Skills Builder tool in the first six months, and the launch of the programme showed a 57 per cent increase in engagement compared with previous skills campaigns. There has been an 8 per cent increase in the number of employees holding relevant professional accreditations and a 10 per cent reduction in the core skills gap, achieved through core skills learning.