不良研究所

How we supported a reluctant learner to progress in her career

Sam Cox, Facilitations Director at Changing Lives Building Dreams (CLBD), talks about how they supported a staff member who was reluctant to learn and progress in her career.

Reluctance in learners is not uncommon. For many people who have been working for a long time, the idea of ‘going back to school’ can be a daunting one. They often believe their learning faculties left them when they finished education and that they’re no longer cut out for the development of new skills. However, when I think of our most successful members of staff, the ones who have developed the most in their career, I’m sure that many of them started out this way.

Louise is one of those people. Louise came to us as a person in her 40s and with a career in pharmacy already behind her. She had entered the world of care slightly later after supporting her autistic son for many years. Although she interviewed well and was clearly a capable person, she was quite a shy and quiet person from the outset. She joined us as a support worker, but we quite quickly identified her as a person who would be perfect to include in our next cohort of qualification participants.

When I approached Louise about doing her Level 3 Health and Social Care qualification, she was initially hesitant. After so long out of education, she thought it would be too difficult a challenge to consider. This was compounded by the fact that this job was her first experience in the care profession, which made it all the more daunting.

To overcome this, we found we had to lay out a clear path of progression and support for Louise. We reassured her of what the process would entail, the types of people who had gone before her and the things we would do to help her complete the learning in a way that was comfortable for her. One of the things we did was to set an afternoon per week that I designated to help Louise with her work, typically in a comfortable setting, such as a local coffee shop. By doing this, Louise knew that she had a regular touch point with someone more experienced to give her help in progressing her work on a regular basis.

Thankfully, Louise had a great start in her course, passing her functional skills with flying colours and establishing a great relationship with the course lead, which helped frame the learning in a positive light for her from the start. I think these experiences were instrumental in making her feel confident when she began her learning.

Not long after starting her learning, a more senior member of staff became pregnant and had to step away from the business slightly. This meant that Louise naturally began to pick up more responsibilities, but eventually also led to her taking on a team leader position. Louise was able to use her newly developed skills to really shine in this role, taking up a lot of additional responsibilities along the way.

After overcoming her fears around her level 3 qualification, Louise came on leaps and bounds, not only as a member of care staff, but as a person. Her newfound confidence was clear to see, and she was taking on tasks that typically would require involvement from other team members and completing them comfortably herself. Not long after her promotion to team leader, she decided to take on her Level 5 Health and Social Care qualification. With a little encouragement from us, she flourished in this pursuit too.

I think Louise’s progress is a testament to what can be achieved with gentle encouragement and a bit faith in yourself. Louise came to us as a fledgling member of our care staff with very little formal care experience but has dived headfirst into her learning and been able to rise through the ranks because it. She’s one of more most dependable and important members of staff and I couldn’t be happier with her progress.

To anyone out there who is considering taking up a programme of learning to help them develop, I would suggest you speak with your employer to see what support they can put in place for you. Most employers want nothing more than their team to grow in confidence and capability and are willing to put many provisions in place to ensure you have the time and confidence needed to succeed.

Make sure to visit our 'Learning and development matters' campaign page to find more learning and development resources.

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