SCS Course Spotlight
Created in response to recent feedback, the SCS Course Spotlight has been set up to showcase courses on the curriculum which are specifically aimed at senior leaders across the civil service.
All courses on the spotlight are available for closed bookings. You can book directly via the booking portal below.
For smaller departments, we have the option below to waitlist for open bookings. Our team will be in touch with you directly once these numbers provide the opportunity to create a full booking.
The Spotlight line-up is updated on a regular basis, and features topics that we know are of particular interest to senior leaders in the Civil Service. These include leadership and management, strategic workforce planning, inspiring teams, communication, building trust and handling crises.
Typically, these are half or full day courses, all led by highly experienced, expert facilitators and designed to meet leaders’ pressing needs. These courses provide valuable opportunities to learn but also to network with fellow senior civil servants, sharing experiences and insights within a safe and confidential environment.
For further details on any of the currently available courses, click on the course name below. For more information on the entire SCS curriculum, type ‘SCS’ into the search box on Prospectus Online.
The AI for Leaders Workshop is designed to empower leaders to navigate the exciting world of Generative AI. Generative AI is still in its early stages of development, and its full potential remains largely unexplored. The hype surrounding it is undeniable, and we're constantly learning about its capabilities. This can be overwhelming, especially as leaders who are entrusted with the responsibility of guiding their teams through this uncharted territory. The AI for Leaders workshop aims to provide direction to leaders looking to adopt GenAI for themselves, their teams, and into their organisational strategy.
In this interactive workshop, participants will gain insights into mission-centred policymaking, and why this approach is so important when creating interventions to drive meaningful change. In addition to understanding this style of policymaking, participants will apply how to take practical actions to start using this approach through creating a practice community for senior civil servants who want to role-model mission-driven policymaking.
Civil servants who work with ministers’ benefit from understanding the Government system as a whole – how the Cabinet Government and Departments works in practice and where they fit into the larger picture.
This online course is delivered by a former special adviser and Westminster insider with over 30 years' experience. There are opportunities for engagement and a chance to connect with likeminded peers across the civil service.
This workshop explores the techniques for rapidly building credibility and trust and how this creates the foundation for open communication. It considers the particular challenges of Ministerial communication, such as maintaining resilience or delivering unwelcome messages. The workshop will be delivered by previous senior civil servants and Ministers.
This course is all about developing an agile mindset, meaning that change – even when it occurs on a regular basis – won’t faze you. In fact, you’ll thrive on it. When enduring change, we can sometimes develop damaging behavioural patterns which can be difficult to shake off in the long run. This is how people can become stuck in the moment, unwilling to change. Change agility is about spotting these behavioural patterns and challenging the assumptions which sit behind them. By doing this and adopting an agile mindset, you can see change as something to be welcomed, rather than endured.
Civil Service Training has been designed to empower teams to take greater responsibility for their own resilience, their performance, and their ability to cope with challenges. Teaming means coming together as a team and working towards a common goal, building capability and trust, and improving performance. It’s about exploring all the different aspects of what it feels like to be in a team, as well as considering the importance of the different relationships within the team.
Core Consulting Skills for Government is a 7 module programme, covering ten key core consulting skills. This totals circa 28.5 hours of facilitated training supported by tools and techniques used by consultants and advisors working in professional services. These skills are not only seen as being fundamental to good consultancy, but have wide application in the Civil Service at large.
In any walk of life, there’s never a guarantee that a good idea can be successfully translated from theory into reality. Government policies are no different. If the practicalities of managing and delivering a policy are not considered from the outset, a disconnect can emerge between intention and implementation. This course focuses on the ‘deliverability’ of policies by making sure that project delivery and project management considerations are introduced at the earliest stage of policy development.
Customer service is often seen as simply responding to queries or resolving issues as they arise. In the Civil Service, however, effective customer engagement goes further. It involves proactively understanding customer needs - whether those customers are members of the public, colleagues, or stakeholders - and supporting them consistently throughout their journey.
Whether you are new to a leadership role or looking to build your confidence when working with key groups of stakeholders - impact and presence are important skills to harness, especially while being authentic. This workshop is all about how to show-up as a leader, leading with confidence and having the self-assuredness to drive your messages. It will help you effectively build relationships with groups and individuals as well as demonstrate how to maintain rapport in challenging times while delivering difficult messages.
This workshop is designed to provide participants with a safe environment to explore and practice ideation and creative thinking techniques. The application of this learned skill is applicable both personally and professionally and will open up decision making and thought processes.
For the first time in the history of the workplace we have four different and distinct generations working together. Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are all contributing to workplace culture and sharing resources which is creating a unique workplace dynamic. As leaders and managers, how do you ensure all generations feel included and valued?
Team leaders have an important part to play in creating an inclusive workplace culture where no one feels marginalised for being different. Where an inclusive culture does exist, team members are likely to feel more valued and will be more productive as a result. Featuring an all-day workshop, this course will demonstrate how an inclusive team is one which feels safe to work in, can cope with creative conflict and tolerates challenges to the status quo.
In a volatile and uncertain world, today’s leaders are constantly challenged and are often faced with sudden and sustained crises. This workshop is designed to enhance the effectiveness of senior leaders who operate in volatile, high pressure environments, delivering strategies for guiding teams through complexity.
Management of Portfolios (MoP) provides advice and examples of how to apply principles, practices, and techniques that together enable the most effective balance of organisational change and business as usual. Delivered by fully accredited trainers and industry leading experts with extensive experience of portfolio management, the course engages with the students to ensure that theory is embedded and delegates feel confident in the practical application of MoP.
Management of Risk (MoR®) is the best practice developed by the UK Government. In today’s business environment risk is being put under the spotlight more and more and this intensive course will introduce you to risk at project, programme, business and strategic levels. Successful completion of this course requires access an external online assessment.
Change is a near-constant presence in today’s workplace. Unfortunately, many employees are often left unsure as to why major organisational changes need to take place. This can make it challenging to secure their engagement or commitment. In fact, employees’ resistance to change is one of the main reasons why so many change transformations fail. Change is something that all of us will experience differently. To deliver change successfully, it’s therefore important that leaders can actively manage, understand and engage with all these potentially different reactions to change.
MSP Practitioner is the second of the three MSP qualifications and is a pre-requisite for anyone wishing to pursue MSP Advanced Practitioner certifications. The purpose of the practitioner qualification is to determine whether a learner has sufficient knowledge and understanding of the MSP guidance to apply the guidance to their own work and, hence, act as an informed member of a programme management team. This course includes the relevant examination.
This workshop introduces people to the latest theories and trends around leadership. By understanding what different factors have influenced leadership over the years, it will improve your confidence in applying modern leadership. Through a strength discovery exercise and self-reflection, this workshop will also equip you with the skills to proactively drive your leadership development to define clear commitments within an actionable personal, strengths-based development plan. In addition to conversation-based and practical learning, opportunities to network with and learn from peers is a key aspect of this programme.
There are 2 critical components within excellent customer service. First, there are the skills and techniques required to turn every interaction into a pleasant experience for your customer. Next, there’s the mindset of continual self-improvement which helps push the boundaries of what excellent customer service looks like. This course is aimed at experienced customer-facing staff who are already well versed in the principles and practice of providing great customer service.
This course is designed to show you how best to classify and evaluate the content of the written submissions provided by candidates. It reinforces the importance of having clear assessment criteria that draw upon the vacancy’s person specification. It will help you to standardise your assessment approach and deliver a fair and efficient appraisal of all written evidence.
This course shows how to develop an assessment process that evaluates candidates in a fair, effective, repeatable and transparent manner. It looks at how to create a job advert that provides enough information to attract suitable candidates without being over-complicated. Using Success Profiles to standardise the personal criteria, it shows how to design a selection process that uses the most appropriate methodology for determining the best person for the job.
Recruitment isn’t just about filling a vacancy. It’s about staffing a team or department with the skills and expertise it needs to achieve its goals. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the essential tasks that a job comprises and the personal characteristics required to perform them successfully. Job analysis is a vitally important part of every successful recruitment process. Done properly – in a fair, effective, consistent and transparent manner – it’s the first step towards crafting a job description and person specification that clearly defines the required skills and expertise for a specific role.
Risk culture can be thought of as the system of values and behaviours that exist in an organisation and underpin the risk-related decisions that are made on a daily basis. This course, aimed at senior leaders from across the Civil Service, focuses on the principles of risk management in government.
There is a growing expectation that government spokespeople should be able to deliver highly polished, professional media interviews and pieces to camera. To help meet this expectation, this highly practical course prepares senior civil servants for delivering press briefings and interviews on TV, radio and ‘down the line’ (i.e. from a remote location).
Strategic workforce planning for business executives and senior leaders
Senior executives have a vital role to play within strategic workforce planning and important that they’re comfortable with the core concepts and principles. This course is designed to provide an introduction to the mechanics of workforce planning and implementation.
Success Profiles – Interviewee Skills
The Success Profiles framework assesses candidates against five different elements – ability, technical skills, experience, strengths and behaviours. This course has been designed to help you reflect on your current interview skills and prepare for future interviews within this framework. You’ll focus on managing interview nerves and understanding how Success Profiles elements are assessed during an interview. You’ll learn how to structure your answers, how to get the most out of the interview and how to use the interview to find out whether the role you’ve applied for is right for you.
Transcultural leadership is crucial for organisations to thrive in a multicultural, interconnected world. It enhances global competitiveness, fosters innovation, and ensures effective communication, all of which are essential for long-term success. This workshop opens the transcultural dimensions of leadership introducing leadership philosophies and approaches from around the world.
Being an effective communicator means mastering the art of storytelling. This workshop is designed as an opportunity for senior leaders within the civil service to not only learn about the power of storytelling but really understand how to do it authentically and deliver a story in a way that connects you to audiences. You will learn how to phrase your key messages through ‘story structures’ which are particularly useful during times of change and build more memorable and personable narratives.
Dedicated SCS booking support
If you’re a senior civil servant looking to book onto a training course, or looking for more information on one of these courses, a specialist booking team is available to help with all your booking related enquiries.
Specifically trained on the courses in the SCS Course Spotlight, the team can save you time by guiding you through the booking process.
The SCS team is available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and can be contacted on 020 3640 7985 (press option 3). Alternatively, you can email the team on support@governmentcampus.co.uk, putting ‘SCS curriculum’ into the message’s subject header.