‘thank you for planning a truly wonderful week of events and
life enriching experiences….’
The idea of a week long learning and development programme was
in part inspired and informed by key issues arising from Arts
Council England’s staff satisfaction surveys and subsequent North
West staff away days where common interests had been identified and
prioritised for opportunities around continuous creativity in
learning and development, across the board, for all staff.
At staff away days it had been explicitly expressed by the
majority of staff that as an arts organisation ourselves there
should be scope in our learning agenda to embed arts and creativity
into the core culture of our organisation.
Additionally, as we approach the coming months where an
organisational review may mean uncertainty, change and increased
workload for current staff it seemed pertinent to focus on and
invest in employees’ wider well-being needs during times of change,
to help equip staff to meet challenges ahead.
As such, and driven through a Union Learning perspective, the
2009 Learning at Work Day presented an ideal opportunity to tie in
to and offer a programme of creative and wellbeing workshops, to
support and facilitate the life long learning agenda within the
workplace.
A business case was made to HR and Senior Management Team and a
small amount of funds were successfully secured to engage
professional workshop leaders and practitioners. Colleagues also
proffered their expertise to lead workshops. A small team of
colleagues volunteered support and joined the Union Learning Rep in
planning and programming, liaising with activity leaders, arranging
resources, timetabling, budgeting, marketing, administering
bookings, meet & greet and overseeing of activities during the
week, post event evaluation - and not forgetting, documenting the
events – out now on flikr and YouTube!
The programme was designed to introduce new skills, share
information, be motivational, to provide stress-relief and coping
strategies, confidence-building, opportunities to take part, engage
and get practical and consisted of:
acapella singing, shiatsu sessions, a Financial Services
Authority ‘Make the Most of Your Money’ seminar, creative writing
for social media, Chinese health movements Qi Gong, meditation
& visualisation, creative card making, dru yoga, and behind the
scenes tours of the nearby John Rylands Library and Manchester Art
Gallery.
‘The week was absolutely wonderful… to achieve such a positive
outcome… an achievement…‘ ‘ thoroughly enjoyed…‘
