The success behind our Guiding Principles

This time last year Whyy? Change was preparing for the worst; it was 1 month after the announcement that England would be going into a national lockdown. We’d signed our first Skills Bank deal, secured status on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP) and we were excited to deliver apprenticeship training, this all stopped.

Our Guiding Principles

Change by name, change by nature, we had to adapt. Ray Byrne, CEO believes in having the right principles. Having the guiding principles in place is key to the success here at Whyy? Change. By instilling these principles into every employee, the business has coped with the unexpected changes that this year has brought upon us. The following principles support the business mantra of ‘Think. Plan. Crack On.’ which has given us direction and really helped to define the culture of what we do here at Whyy? Change.

Whyy? Change Guiding Principles — Whyy? Change’s Guiding Principles

Think. Plan. Crack on. stems from elements of our Lean & Six Sigma and Quality HSE training that looks at PDCA (Plan. Do. Check. Act.) which focuses on the steps required to ensure that projects are carried out successfully. By implementing the right systems, curiosity, knowledge and understanding the legacy of Whyy? Change by doing what needs to be done, gives us clarity on where we see the business heading.

Whyy? Change wouldn’t be Whyy? Change if our employees weren’t curious or questioned our own thinking. It’s in our DNA and as a training provider, sharing knowledge is what we do. With that said, the guiding principles have enabled us as a company to put in place the right measures, systems and attention to prepare us for an Ofsted visit.

Protecting the business

Emma Harrison our Director of Governance is responsible for protecting the business from Ray (yes you heard that right). Governance plays a crucial role in keeping the business on track with regards to apprenticeship learning standards, company policies and culture of the organisation. Emma has been working hard to put the right systems in place to ensure that when OFSTED came knocking, we were ready. Here’s what she had to say:

“Systems matter and having a strong, systematic approach to all of our apprenticeship delivery has been critical, especially throughout Covid-19. Our team culture has shaped the outcome of our new provider monitoring visit, but we don’t sit back on our laurels, we’ve already had follow up meetings as a team to discuss what we can all do to improve further… think, plan, crack on.”
Emma Harrison, Director of Governance

The moment we’d all been waiting for

That moment came on Monday 22nd March when Ray received a call to say they would be coming in for a monitoring visit in two days’ time. Thankfully we were fully prepared with OFSTED announcing in their report that our “Apprentices enjoy their learning and benefit from discussions with their expert tutors that help them to improve their workplace skills.”

In addition to “Apprentices develop positive behaviours that make them more effective in their roles. Level 4 marketing executive apprentices become more confident and assertive in their roles as they develop their underpinning knowledge. They feel they are better communicators and managers as a result.”

With them also highlighting that we:

“Have invested significantly in industry-standard resources and qualifications over and above the requirements of the apprenticeship standards.”
OFSTED

Which outlines principles of doing right by everyone and doing what we need to do to ensure we are meeting our aim of providing business knowledge & services to transform people and industry.

We believe in going above and beyond to provide added value to our apprentices. This has been recognised by OFSTED as:

“Apprentices value the opportunity to take recognised professional qualifications alongside their apprenticeship, which help them develop in their chosen careers. For example, level 4 marketing executive apprentices work towards achieving the Chartered Institute of Marketing certificate.”
OFSTED

Our customer’s matter. It’s important that we share knowledge and value to a high standard to help not only our apprentices but the businesses themselves. With OFSTED identifying that we “recruit tutors with the skills and expertise to provide high-quality training. All are industry specialists with higher-level qualifications in the subjects that they teach. Employer’s value the quality of training and the contribution that apprentices make to their workplaces as a result”.

Across the three themes we were assessed on, we are pleased to announce that Whyy? Change have made ‘significant progress’ for outlining how much progress we have made in meeting all the requirements of successful apprenticeship provision. We have also made ‘significant progress‘ in ensuring that apprentices benefit from high-quality training that leads to positive outcomes for apprentices and ‘reasonable progress’ for safeguarding. This not only highlights the principles we’ve put in place but the ability to adapt to change during one of the most challenging years.

This wouldn’t have been possible without you, our apprentices, employers and tutors involved, so thank you. Thank you for filling out those forms, for picking up the phone, for delivering that training session. Now it’s time to Think. Plan. Crack On.

Download the full OFSTED report to find out more.

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