NICVA celebrates its learners

26 Mar 2019 Sandra Bailie    Last updated: 27 Mar 2019

On Friday 22 March we recognised and celebrated the achievement of our learners who gained ILM and TQUK qualifications. It was also a great chance to hear how their learning had impacted on their work. 

We were delighted to be joined by a room full of successful graduates who were there to receive their certificates and meet up with fellow learners.

Dawn Love, our Skills Development Officer, kicked off the event by welcoming everyone and congratulating them on what they had achieved, especially when juggling work and other committments. 

Una McKernan, Deputy Chief Exectutive, added her congratulations, emphasising the importance of investing in staff and volunteers in our organisations and commending the organisations who had enabled the learners to attend the training and encouraged them to complete their assignments for their qualifications. She referred to NICVA recently going through the IIP Investors in People assessment and how it had captured the value of continuously developing staff to ensure high performance and motivation. She said

"It is so important that we have staff, board members and volunteers that are robust and equiped to manage change in the challenging environment in which we work. We know that our training develops skills and confidence to enable people to be effective in their roles. Having staff and volunteers with nationally recognised qualifications like TQUK and ILM help to strengthen organisations and build capacity for the future"

It was great to have two of our learners to share the value of the courses they had attended. Firstly, Jordan Whitefield from Guide Dogs spoke of the transferable skills that she had learnt on the TQUK Level 3 Award in Education and Training with NICVA. She is now a dementia friendly champion training in her local community and delivers mental health training. Jordon said

"NICVA has offered me a wealth of opportunities to develop and grow"

Breeda Doherty, from The Cedar Foundation, successfully completed her ILM level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring with NICVA through the online programme. A group of staff went through the programme at the same time and in Breeda's words The Cedar Foundation now have "a skilled management team to help staff be resilient and resourceful"

She commented that the online training offered flexibility and forced her to reflect on what she does and think about what she would change. She has learned to listen more and not jump to solutions to empower her staff with the skills of problem solving. This has had a knock on effect on service users, she said

"My staff are now more confident and come up with solutions to problem which means that they are more responsive to the needs of the service users"

Roisin Kelly, Skills Development Coordinator added her congratulations saying it was a day to celebrate all that they had achieved and encouraged them to continue to devleop and learn.

Sandra Bailie, Head of Organisational Development thanked Roisin and Dawn for all their hard work developing and delivering the programmes as well as marking assignments and quality assuring the accreditation process. She then welcomed Anne McCormick who is an executive coach working with NICVA to share some of her insights and learning.

Anne encouraged us all to take whatever opportunities we get in life and to adopt a coaching approach to our relationships. She said coaching is all about questions and listening, reminding us that the purpose of asking a question is not to illicit information but to give the person a chance to think. She talked about coaching being an empowering tool, the importance of promoting the whole person at work and creating a thinking environment. Anne urged the leaders to constantly change, look outward and think of their wider networks. She left us with a few thought provoking questions:

What do you care most about?

Who and what does your organisation serve and what would those people say you need to do and learn?

What is knocking on your door and what is it asking you to step up to?

The morning ended with those attending being awarded certificates in:

  • ILM level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring
  • ILM level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management
  • ILM level 3 Award in Management of volunteers
  • TQUK level 3 Award in Education and Training

We wish all our learners all the best as they apply what they have learnt to their roles and impact their organisations and communities. Well done to you all.

For more information about what training NICVA has to offer go to our website

 

sandra.bailie@nicva.org's picture
by Sandra Bailie

Head of Organisational Development

[email protected]

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