Learning at Work every week
This week (w/c 15 May) is national Learning at Work week. An annual campaign led by the Campaign for Learning.
I love Learning at Work Week…there are awareness weeks and months and days for all manner of activities and schemes – we work on a lot of them in the Marketing Team, however the great thing about Learning at Work Week is that it its universal and gives everyone a renewed focus on personal development and learning.
While I can’t claim to be particularly academic, I’ve pushed myself to learn every year. I’ve volunteered, taken on new responsibilities, listened to countless podcasts, and read a range of books. I’ve mentored people and been mentored myself, joined networking groups and judged industry awards.
Our PAL system has a great array of online courses, both mandatory and tailored to general development. We get the benefit from our Education and Skills service and regularly offer bootcamps and courses; right now we’ve got leadership and project management courses available to colleagues for example.
Learning and development is something that we all need to do to ensure we keep our skills up to date, however our learning – whether in work or outside work, developmental or purely for fun – ultimately benefits us all. It’s been proved to support your mental health (and yes, it’s also Mental Health Awareness Week this week), and it offers ways to meet new people and understand different perspectives. Learning does not have to cost much, if anything, but the value it has immeasurable.
It's also worth mentioning that Learning at Work Week’s website has lots of free tools: Great things to learn for Learning at Work Week 2023
I hope this week you take a moment to reflect on what a new learning challenge could look like for you. As we’re in PDR season it’s a great chance to talk to your manager about the ambitions you have for your own learning this year.
Happy Learning at Work Week.