When I'm looking at training or development opportunities, I split them into two areas. This is the second stage of the cycle, bigger picture skills and here and now skills.

Bigger picture skills are where I may not have an invested interest in or a specific need for training at the time, but know that accessing development in this area will help me in the medium to long term.

Best practice point - bigger picture skills could be the following: an apprenticeship; management training for non-managers; how to manage budgets; general financial management; more experience-based training like observing interviews with new staff or sitting in on management meetings to see how they are conducted.

All of the above can aid development when staff are ready to take on a new role, but also from a management perspective, you are able to see how that employee adapts to these situations and learnings. In performance reviews or supervisions, encourage staff to be honest and ask questions regarding their development within the business, areas they think they can improve and see how that corresponds with your assessment. Managers should be prepared to give feedback, using the skills matrix as cues for discussion to work with your employees to create a development plan to help them achieve their goals.

Here and now skills are development topics that support you in your role right now, whether that be an enhancement of current skill set or learning different methodologies to help you manage specific tasks and/or workflow. For example, I am very prescriptive in my organisation, so investing time in my own development is important to me. One area I am looking to improve is my use of LinkedIn. LinkedIn can be extremely helpful for me within my role; speaking with new and existing clients, sharing useful content/articles and finding out the latest developments in my areas of work. So, I’ve identified my skills gap is a here and now skill for me as I know this will help me in my role and can see the benefits straight away. My next step is to have a look around for training or resources - some you might wish to consider are:

https://alison.com/ - Alison has lots of free training on specific subjects and varies in learning time depending on how far you want to delve into the subject.

YouTube – Certainly, a time efficient way of accessing the skills you need. There are hundreds of videos and even specific channels that support learning on a specific

GC Business Growth Hub events page – This is a great resource to find local workshops, training and events and is updated regularly. 

Reviewing the training you have accessed is important, as it will shape your decision-making when future training opportunities present themselves. Looking at the summary of the course before you booked on, did it cover what you needed? How much more time did you need to invest after the training to reach your learning objectives? Would you recommend to your colleagues? These simple questions can help to make the training process much more effective.

You can even take a further step back in the identification process, asking questions like: was I detailed enough in areas I would like to develop? What are the key functions that will help me in my role? What you don’t want to be doing is wasting time attending or completing training and accessing videos that don’t cover what you need: be specific.