The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts (SFCT), a diverse umbrella organisation supporting initiatives across environment, social inclusion, and more, has been making significant strides in developing essential skills for its workforce. Recognising the ever-changing work landscape and the need for adaptable skill sets, SFCT has prioritised fostering a strong culture of learning and development, earning them a Skills Builder Bronze Excellence Mark.

The People, Learning and Improvement  Team have introduced a suite of new initiatives to enhance the SFCT learning and development offer, such as the Management Academy, lunchtime training sessions and a coaching pool. With Skills Builder, SFCT has been championing awareness of essential skills, their importance in the workplace and how they can be developed as a key part of colleagues’ professional development.

Raising awareness of essential skills benefits

SFCT has raised awareness of essential skills by delivering insightful training sessions with staff and will build on this to integrate essential skills into core learning and development resources. 

The Universal Framework has been a useful tool to help staff explore their strengths and areas for development and support their professional development planning as part of  annual reviews and objective setting.  

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Employees are supported to develop their essential skills

SFCT will be integrating essential skills into ongoing training initiatives, reinforcing their importance alongside other job-specific knowledge, with access to a range of initiatives to grow their skillset.

Anyone at SFCT can apply for up to six sessions of one-to-one careers or skills coaching, with opportunities to tailor this to focus on essential skills. Leadership programmes like the Management Academy incorporate essential skills development into the curriculum.  Additionally, employees can use their personal development plans to request tailored learning opportunities, often focused on essential skills. This may include mentorship programmes or job shadowing to gain practical experience. Staff can also access a library of on-demand learning modules on Skills Builder Launchpad, specifically designed to enhance essential skills, so staff can learn at their own pace.

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Promoting and recognising the development of essential skills

This year, the annual review process was a collaborative effort, encouraging managers and employees to work together and review progress in essential skills alongside other job-specific areas.

This review is integrated into the full cycle of development and performance management, ensuring that the progress against personal development plans and objectives for the upcoming year are reviewed in collaboration at key points in the year.

Supporting staff to have these annual review conversations around essential skills, the Skills Builder team has run dedicated sessions on how to use the online self-assessment tool, Skills Builder Benchmark, with insight on how to effectively incorporate essential skills into these important conversations.

“It's been a great experience working in partnership with Skills Builder for the past year” said Vicky Swarbrick, Senior Learning and Improvement Partner, Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. “We see this as the start of our essential skills development work, and hope to be able to hit higher accreditation levels in the future.”

“We will be continuing to work with Skills Builder and potentially working towards programmatic accreditation. But most importantly continuing to encourage staff to engage with the framework and make this a part of their development planning!’”