“When I started my role 2 years ago, we as an organisation definitely weren’t using apprenticeships to their full potential... There was a real stigma to them. At the same time, our annual engagement survey revealed that colleagues had a strong desire for development opportunities – so we knew there was a real need for these programmes.”
“I’ve worked with apprenticeships before and having seen the valuable results that can be achieved with them, my role is to help colleagues understand their benefits."
When Sara Donaldson, Organisational Development Lead at Clarion Housing, started her new role at Clarion in 2022, she faced a significant challenge. Employees and senior leadership wanted development opportunities but had been let down by previous providers and were sceptical of the value of apprenticeships.
Sara, who serves as the lead for apprenticeships, talent management, and culture-related initiatives, had a real challenge on her hands – her mission was to reinvigorate apprenticeships, emphasising their benefits in practical training and job-related development to a sceptical audience. This led to a partnership with Corndel and Imperial College Business School.
“I’ve worked with apprenticeships before and having seen the valuable results that can be achieved with them, my role is to help colleagues understand their benefits. I did a lot of work to educate colleagues to see that doing practical training – is something that relates to your job and helps you develop or aspire to the next role - is a really valuable development opportunity.”
Sara identifies two key issues: the misconception that apprenticeships are only for young people and a lack of understanding about off-the-job training, including its relevance and the need for it to be done within working hours. Sara emphasises the importance of busting these myths and ensuring that apprenticeships are viewed as valuable development opportunities for all.
Empowering Growth in Aspiring Managers
Sara identified a real need for development opportunities for aspiring managers. “We honed in on development areas and we found that there were a lot of colleagues aspiring to get on that first step on the management ladder who felt there was no opportunity, and equally managers perhaps who were a bit stuck with where they were and really wanted that development to help them get to the next level.”
Her approach has certainly yielded results: “‘ We’re definitely seeing some tangibles coming out of the programme in terms of improvement in knowledge, skills and behaviours. We’re seeing colleagues who can make much better decisions and whose line managers are reporting they're seeing a positive change in behaviour. They’re picking up different skills and that’s showing in terms of how they’re bringing themselves to work every day, leading their teams, managing projects and understanding data.
"We’re seeing people who can make much better decisions"
"The goal was to empower teams to produce their own data and tell compelling stories with it. The feedback has been great"
Clarion’s Data-Driven Ambitions
Clarion launched a data academy to address a fundamental need within the organisation. Sara explains: "I teamed up with our Head of Data Governance and Director of Business Intelligence to tackle a big challenge.. Other teams were relying heavily on their teams for data, which was draining resources. They needed everyone to be more data-literate to stop this happening.
So, we launched a programme last year with 47 colleagues nominated by Heads of Service. The goal was to empower teams to produce their own data and tell compelling stories with it. The feedback has been great, with managers and apprentices now doing things they hadn't before, thanks to the learning from the programme. It's rewarding to see the positive impact of targeted development initiatives in action."
Sara shares her satisfaction with the early impact of the programmes, noting that while promotions and significant movements are still in progress, there are notable changes in employees' decision-making abilities and behaviours.
"Everyone should be able to benefit from an apprenticeship"
Clarion’s EDI Focus
As a business, Clarion are committed to building a workplace where everyone feels valued, can be themselves and can reach their full potential - and apprenticeships are one way they’re doing this.
Sara Donaldson emphasised the inclusive nature of apprenticeships, stating, "Everybody should be able to benefit from an apprenticeship". She highlights the importance of engaging individuals who are not office-based and reaching out to those who may have felt overlooked in the past, such as multi-trade operators and caretakers.
Another initiative, the Clarion Women in Leadership programme, will launch soon – the programme aims to arm women with the skills and knowledge they need to progress in their careers with Clarion. The targeted recruitment approach involves reaching out to women across their organisation as part of activities on International Women’s Day. Whilst we have a focused audience, we want to target those women who are looking to develop and build on their leadership skills.
They may not have previously applied to join a leadership programme due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of available opportunities or perhaps because of perceived barriers, some examples of which could be a working parent, someone with a disability or learning difficulties. We’ll announce the launch of the new programme on International Women’s Day, where we’ll host an apprenticeship Q&A with Corndel to raise awareness and promote the benefits of the programme.