Not-for-profit (otherwise known as Third Sector) organisations have their own set of challenges and needs when it comes to L&D.

In this series, we will hear from several charities and organisations on what their learning priorities are for the coming year, what their pain points are, and what they've been finding effective in the development of their staff.

Marie Duncan, L&D Manager at Kibble Education and Care Centre - Scotland’s national specialist provider of services for young people.

We spoke to Marie about their L&D plans for the coming months, and what their successes have been so far.

What are your development priorities for the next year?

Our biggest priorities are the development of our academic degree programme and the development of a digital learning strategy that integrates more modern ways of acquiring knowledge and skills.

Our current eLearning courses are a bit lacking in inspiration so we want to start experimenting with live online learning and other forms of social learning.

What are your biggest challenges when developing staff?

Our largest group of staff work directly with vulnerable service users on a rota system, so removing staff for training has significant logistical and financial implications.

A significant challenge is engaging people in their own learning

Another significant challenge is engaging people in their own learning and helping them take ownership and responsibility rather than relying on the traditional ‘training course’ to gain the knowledge and skills they think they need!

What have you found most successful in developing your teams?

It sounds simplistic but for us it’s not a tool or learning medium, it’s simply good leadership.

For us that means focusing on training, supporting and encouraging managers to: help front line staff reflect on their practice; provide coaching; and support their staff to learn from practice and each other every day. We find this is more effective than a single training course.