Advance Expert: I have come away buzzing with new ideas and skills!
Imagine stepping into a development programme that not only challenges your thinking but leaves you feeling energised and inspired! That’s exactly what happened to Lizzie Harris from the Department of Transport, who is a graduate of Advance Expert, our development programme for Grade 7s and senior managers. In her own words, the experience was “refreshing, thought-provoking, and fun!” – perfectly capturing the spirit of professional growth that we champion across the profession.
How has the Advance Expert supported you in your role as a government communicator?
Between the SkillsCamp and the Learning Festival, I’ve come away from GCS Advance Expert buzzing with ideas about how me and my team can better communicate in a fast-changing world. From learning about what AI means for communications, to innovation techniques and strategic thinking, I’ve taken away loads of new ideas, as well as new skills and the opportunity to put them into practice through group projects and workshops.
It’s also helped me extend my professional network – I met loads of great people from right across GCS, and learned loads from them. My project team from the SkillsCamp is planning to meet up in the new year, which is great.
What key skills or knowledge have you gained from the programme (any particular element or topic covered in the course) that you apply regularly in your job?
SkillsCamp has helped me become a much more confident user of GCS Assist – and helped me appreciate the many tasks it can help with. I’ve been using it as a helping hand for tasks I’ve previously found quite challenging, like setting KPIs or COM-B analysis. Assist can provide a second opinion, or in some cases a starter for ten that you can then take away and work from.
As a team leader, the programme has also helped me recognise the importance of creating a culture of innovation. My team and I now regularly use techniques learnt on the programme (like ‘5 whys’) in our team meetings, to really get to the root of a problem before really getting into solutions and fixes.
What do you think is the most valuable long-term benefit of the programme?
The most valuable long-term benefit of the programme was the tools the course gave me to really dissect a problem, and work out how communications can help fix it. Some of these were practical things like analytical techniques, or different ways to brainstorm, but I also came away feeling that GCS actively wants me to take the time to think about a problem first, and not just jump straight to solutions. This will stand me in good stead, as properly getting to grips with a problem will help me develop better communications solutions in the long-run.