Hello PPMA members and friends

We are thrilled to share with you that we have achieved our best year ever in the number of award entries received for this year’s Excellence in People Management Awards 2021.

It has been a challenging year on so many levels and at the same time it has generated creativity, innovation, camaraderie, and an abundance of kindness and compassion on display like never before.

These qualities have all been showcased in the bumper crop of award entries which is going to make the task of short listing of finalists, yet alone selecting our winner, even more difficult than ever before.

Thank you to everyone who has entered and to all of our judges. The 2021 short list will be announced at the end of June and the winners announced at the PPMA virtual conference on 14th & 15th September.

We wish all of our entrants the very best of luck and we are so looking forward to revealing and celebrating the shortlisted organisations with you.

Find out more about the awards and our Virtual Conference on our website.

Hello PPMA members and friends

What a fantastic two days we have enjoyed this week, coaching and learning with apprentices from across the UK public sector sharing their stories, talents and the legacy they wish to be known for. This was the first time we have run this event virtually and it was great to see all the delegates making the most of the opportunity, including the virtual networking.

It truly was inspiring to spend time with such talented, committed, caring and passionate individuals, and to see the growth in their confidence and skills following the first development day and the personal coaching they received over recent weeks.

Colleagues from PPMA and Crown Commercial Service, our sponsor for this event, provided coaching for the delegates before participants were invited to share their personal brand statement, gratitude challenge and legacy statement.  We were all so impressed by the passion and commitment shared by every apprentice as they showed and their willingness and ability to be open about their personal stories; it was a wonderful experience and a privilege to listen to them and be part of this unique development programme.

The talent of the apprentices was extremely impressive and it was so hard to choose who would go forward to the final event on 28th May 2021.

However we are delighted to announce that our finalists for the PPMA Apprentice of the Year 2021 are:

• Owain Herring from Doncaster Council
• Cintia Jankoczi from London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
• Molly Edlin from London Borough of Islington
• Becky Neville from The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
• Megan Mitchell from Northumberland County Council
• Mattise Artingstall from Tameside Council
• Lotte Newman from Surrey County Council

Congratulations to all of the apprentices who took part this year.  You are all wonderful ambassadors for your organisations and the future of public service.

Leatham Green

PPMA Interim Executive Director

Hello PPMA members and friends

Last week our joint Apprentice of the Year Winner 2019, Kirsten Moore shared with us her experience of taking part in the competition and this week we hear from her inspirational fellow winner, Daniel John. Daniel is from South Gloucestershire Council and here is his story:

“I decided to enter the PPMA Apprentice of the Year as the idea of testing my abilities against other apprentices in a competitive environment greatly appealed to me as well as development opportunities to develop my career. I was thrilled to be shortlisted along with 15 other great apprentices from across the country and was looking forward to the challenge.

The morning of the first day was focused around training and development. The emphasis was on developing the core being of who we are as individuals and how to increase our confidence to help us get our message across. We learned different techniques for public speaking such as how to breathe and how to hold people’s attention using silence. I found the morning challenging as it took me out of my comfort zone, although when the competition started I felt confident in applying what I had learned in the morning.

During the afternoon of day one we had to perform a team activity that focused on time forecasting, individually answer questions from the judges, and deliver a short pitch on our legacy presentation that we had to deliver the next day.

The second day consisted of an individual task in which we had to show how well we could cope under pressure and the legacy presentations. For my presentation, I talked about how my passion for improving conditions for people with Autism has been shaped by my life story. My apprenticeship finishes in July and I would like to gain a permanent job which would enable me to make a difference for people with Autism.

Overall, I found the experience wonderfully enjoyable and precious. I found everyone involved to be so friendly and inspiring and I will cherish the memories for the rest of my life.”

Daniel John, PPMA Joint Apprentice of the Year 2019

We hope that Daniel has an amazing year and we look forward to celebrating with him and all of our other talent programme winners at this year’s PPMA Conference, which will be held at The Hilton Metropole Birmingham, on 14^th to 16^th May. If you’d like to join us, then book your place here.

Hello PPMA members and friends

The 2019 PPMA Apprentice of the Year competition was a fantastic event and showcased the amazing up and coming talent we are lucky enough to have in the public sector. We had an unprecedented number of applicants and the 16 brilliant finalists were invited to a 2 day event at Warwick Business School. The judging panel were unable to differentiate between 2 outstanding candidates, so the decision was made to select both as our winners…and we’d like to congratulate Daniel John representing South Gloucestershire Council and Kirsten Moore representing Central Bedfordshire Council.

Below, Kirsten Moore shares with us her experiences from the event and legacy she aims to leave behind:

“I went into the competition not knowing what to expect. I had already felt challenged by the application questions but was excited to see what the activities and assessments would bring. The two days took us back to basics, focusing on self-confidence and presentation skills, as well as working under pressure and group coordination. The judges, coaches and other apprentices created such a safe environment, allowing all of us to try new things and push ourselves. There was so much support from everyone that we forgot that it was a competition! The other apprentices had such interesting, and often moving, stories and great passion for the sector they are working in.

After an intense first day, I stopped just focusing on the competition and instead set personal goals for the experience, ensuring I took all I could from my time with PPMA – and I am so pleased I did, as I feel this is what might have helped me to become joint winner.

Presenting my personal legacy allowed me to reflect on how beneficial undertaking an apprenticeship has been for all areas of my life. Professionally, I am completing a transferable qualification, where I can help to direct my personal development and training opportunities, whilst working. Personally, the security and my enjoyment of the role now allows me to focus time on my legacy: fundraising for Parkinson’s UK, which is a cause very close to me.

It has been great to challenge myself and I have learnt so much about myself, personally and professionally. The biggest thing I am taking away from the competition is self-confidence and the courage to push myself forward more in my development. ”

Kirsten Moore, PPMA Joint Apprentice of the Year 2019

We hope that Kirsten has an amazing year and we look forward to celebrating with her and all of our other talent programme winners at this year’s PPMA Conference, which will be held at The Hilton Metropole Birmingham, on 14^th to 16^th May. If you’d like to join us, then book your place here.

Hello PPMA members and friends

Last week Karen Grave and our Joint Apprentice of The Year 2018 winner, Josh Pimm, were invited to join our good friends and supporters from The Guardian on a sailing event to Cowes. A brilliant day was had by all and back on dry land, we caught up with Josh to find out how life has changed for him since winning the competition and also what he got out of the trip and the impact this will have on his immediate professional development.

Josh what has life has been like since you became our joint Apprentice of the Year for 2018?

• Becoming joint apprentice of the year has been such a fantastic opportunity from the start, it has opened doors for me and allowed me to progress my career, it has given me confidence when working and tips that I use in everyday life. I went in not knowing what to expect, an open mind, but the experience has set me up and allowed me to progress faster than I ever thought I would.

What specifically did you learn from the Apprentice of the Year programme and how do you think that will help you in your current work?

• The primary lesson that I took away from the apprentice of the year programme is the subtilties of body language and how powerful it can be, to be able to effectively present it is not only what you say, but how you say it. But there are a host of other skills that have really been developed throughout the program, from leadership and team work to the importance of eye contact and most importantly having confidence. Whether that be with senior leaders in my council or working under pressure with my team towards a goal, remaining calm and confident is key to success.

What was your reaction when you were invited to spend a day with our Platinum Sponsor’s The Guardian?

• When I was first invited to attend The Guardian sponsors sailing day I was unsure whether it was a joke. The opportunity to go sailing in such a beautiful part of the county and the opportunity to meet many other hard working professionals was too good to be true. To my luck it was not a joke and an experience I will hold with me for a long time coming.

We hear you were a whizz at sailing?  What did you enjoy most about that experience in particular and the whole day?

• Having never been sailing before I was unsure what to expect, but I can say I now have a sailing bug and will definitely be getting back to the water and raising the sails. It can be so easy to get caught up in our hectic work lives that coming out on to the open water and the only sounds being the ruffling of the sails and the sea lapping at the boat can be quite a shock. The ability to sit down and chat with people was very refreshing, so much communication is done over email, but this never compares with a face to face talk. And finding out the projects that other professionals and teams are working on is truly exciting stuff.

What will you take back from the day in terms of your immediate development?

• I will need to go sailing more. But more importantly the value of networking, especially for young apprentices like myself networking can seem like a daunting and unnecessary affair. But that could not be further from the truth, it is the networks that are built that will allow you to better yourself, show off your skills to the world, further your career and most importantly create lasting relationships with other likeminded professionals. To bounce ideas in a safe environment and learn from the lessons of others, a helpful hand to guide you towards your goals.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to The Guardian for the fabulous invitation and it’s clear that both Karen and Josh had a valuable and enjoyable day!

Hello PPMA members and friends

As part of our ‘Let’s Talk’ themes, our President Caroline Nugent gives us an update on how apprenticeships and the levy have developed over the past year.

“Well what a year it has been. From the ‘excitement’ of the new levy to the reality of the new levy! You are all very well versed on my views on apprentices and how passionate I am about bringing on tomorrow’s talent so they do not have huge debts. We have had an olive branch of some change through the chancellors recent speech, so hopefully those in power have realised that we all want this to work but it will not be successful in its current state.

We need to increase apprentice numbers again as to see a 50% reduction in numbers of apprentices is just the worst thing, which could have happened! I suppose I have to get my frustrations out of the way before I reflect on the positives. Why has it given providers the opportunity to raise fees for providing the same things! How can a course last year have gone up so much? And hasn’t this happened for our own HR professional courses too? We are heading the same way as universities where we have a race to the top to see who is going to charge the most and who is going to challenge why fees have gone up so much!

And why on earth weren’t the qualifications ready for some of those courses we desperately wanted to put people into as part of succession planning? What I find so depressing is during talking to so many people that I am hearing ‘oh we just put x onto a management course to make sure we use up the money!’ Where is the strategic planning approach we really need? And who is keeping track on the equalities on who is getting the training and who isn’t. I can just see now the FOIs etc asking which protected characteristic had opportunities and who didn’t…….. we don’t want another BBC.

So onto the positives as I always do. We have our highly successful national programme on Apprentice of the Year, which is due to run again this month and will test and challenge our young people and put them outside of their comfort zones. If I had had the opportunity to go on a programme like this, which is FREE and will set me up for life, I would have been so motivated and grateful to my employer. Let’s increase numbers even further next year to give more people the chance.

We have wonderful people like Matthew from Central Bedfordshire who won our Apprentice of the Year 2017 and has been working with Leatham on considering disabilities in apprenticeships and how we can make this work so that we can actively support and increase numbers of people with disabilities in the workforce. There is a real opportunity here.

Finally all in all I see a positive potential to apprenticeships, but this is conditional upon being able to use some of the money for salaries and challenging providers about why costs are increasing. From one ex apprentice to the next lets make it work and lets work together to give young people the chance to work cross sector or across different public bodies during the apprenticeship so they get a fantastic experience and no university debt!”

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.

It’s a belated New Year from me and all of us at PPMA.  We’ve all been incredibly busy here in January already and it sadly feels like Christmas and the New Year was an awfully long time ago.  I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends.  My husband Kevin and I spent a few days over the holidays in beautiful Gloucester.  It was a wonderful opportunity to relax and reflect on what we have been doing since last April.

Time passes so quickly, but I feel very strongly that we have made some real progress with our Agenda and I’m looking forward to the rest of my term.  Since you last heard from me, I have visited colleagues in Northern Ireland, Scotland (our SPDS colleagues) and down in the South West, where our Regional Chair Julie Biggs and her colleagues put on a fantastic event focused on Wellbeing.

I also had the opportunity to talk at the HPMA conference in Leeds in November.  We’ve made some really positive and sustainable progress in building our relationships with other groups this year and it’s a constant inspiration to me to see the passion, commitment and energy of like-minded professionals up close.  I increasingly worry about our ability to keep abreast of change so it’s always refreshing to be with highly committed colleagues.

There is a key area though where I’m not sure that we are keeping up.  And that is the critical issue of our own professional development.  We heard from one of our Sponsors, Osborne Thomas at our October Northern Forum about research they had done with the LGA.  This showed that HR and OD professionals just aren’t focusing on their own development.  No I know we are busy BUT it’s critical we keep up with our own CPD.

I’m really pleased to say that Rising Stars and Apprentice of the Year 2018 programmes are underway.  Leatham Green is leading on this and I know he’s excited about entrants so far, but it’s critical we all continue to push these very important programmes.  Given the research I just mentioned, we can’t be satisfied until we have an overwhelming response to these programmes.

Turning my eye to this next few months, we’re obviously focusing on this years awards and of course Annual Conference in April.  Karen will be updating you more on this over the next few weeks, but don’t forget conference booking has been open for several months.  We’ve been using our social media channels heavily.

Talk of social media, this is one area that our new PPMA Business Admin and Marketing Support Officer will be working with us and TenHorizon on.  We failed to find a snappy title for our new full time role, but we absolutely succeeded in finding the right person for the role.  My final note for this blog is to introduce you to Grace Davies.  Grace has been with us since the beginning of January and she has already made herself a critical part of our team.  Grace has put together a short film below – go and make a cuppa and then listen to what she has to say.

Until next time and with very best wishes

Hello PPMA colleagues and friends

In this week’s blog post, our amazing Apprentice of the Year, Matthew Wallis gives us an update on the work he has been doing on accessible apprenticeships for disabled people. Matthew speaks from very personal experience as he is hearing-impaired. For those of us that know Matthew well, we know that this ‘impairment’ does not make Matthew ‘less-than’ in any way. Caroline Nugent told us that Matthew’s commitment to raising opportunities for disabled apprentices is clear to see and his experience means that his thoughts have real insight and impact.

So over, to Matthew …….

“I would like to give an update on the progress being made by the PPMA to make sure that public sector organisations have the tools they require so that their apprenticeships are as accessible as possible for disabled people. For those of you who haven’t read my previous articles in the PPMA’s focus supplement, I feel very passionate about promoting the benefits of employing more disabled apprentices.

As a former hearing-impaired apprentice, I can say from personal experience that apprenticeships offer disabled people the chance to achieve great things – as long as the support is available to help them reach their potential. For employers, the benefits include the opportunity to shape their workforce to reflect the community served, the introduction of new skills and an increase in the number of high quality apprenticeship candidates.

Of the 7 million disabled people in the UK, 3.4 million are currently out of work. As a result of this, public sector organisations are missing out on the chance to employ talented members of staff. With increasing pressures in the public sector to ensure they recruit and retain the best talent, could providing accessible apprenticeships for people with disabilities, offer the much-needed key for a prosperous future workforce?

I think it can. The government has set an ambitious target of 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020. As part of this target, there has been an increased focus on the need to encourage and enable many more highly quality disabled candidates to start apprenticeships. There have already been a number of initiatives which aims to tackles this.  This includes:

–       The Apprenticeship Levy, where learning providers can receive additional funding for recruiting disabled apprentices;

–       And the Paul Maynard taskforce recommendations, which was a taskforce commissioned to explore access to apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities.

Despite these efforts, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done, to achieve the governments ambitious goals.

In the past few months, I have been undertaking research and building a case to determine what we can do to help bridge the apprenticeship gap for disabled people. As a result of this research, I provided the PPMA Policy Board an update earlier this month. I made 4 simple, but effective, recommendations which aims to tackle the gap.

• To produce a number of case studies of disabled apprentices in the public sector
• To gather statistics regarding disabled apprentices in the public sector
• To create a standard for an ‘Accessible Apprenticeship’
• To understand what barriers there may be in recruiting disabled apprentices

These recommendations will help PPMA and our employer organisations identify whether their apprenticeship programmes are as accessible as they could be. In the coming months, I will be working with our networks to try and make sure these recommendations become a reality.

If you know of any disabled apprentice in the public sector who would like to contribute to this project, either as a case study or to give feedback, please encourage them to contact me at matthew.wallis@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.  Alternatively, if you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions please feel free to contact me or drop me an email.”

Matthew Wallis , PPMA Apprentice of the Year 2017