Hywel Dda Commended at the Learning at Work Week Impact Awards

16 November 2022

Hywel Dda University Health Board’s Learning and Development team have been recognised at the Learning at Work Week Impact Awards for their innovative approach to educating and developing staff at a time of significant change and recruitment in the NHS.

The awards celebrate bold, creative, and impactful campaigns by employers across the UK that champion and drive lifelong learning at work and opportunities for staff. 

This year’s winners, created by the educational organisation Campaign for Learning, are from a diverse mix of sectors, including national media, banking and finance, corporate utilities, and the NHS.

Hywel Dda UHB’s Learning and Development team were commended in the Innovation in Learning and Development category, sponsored by Findcourses.co.uk, for building a learning culture at a time of significant change, managing the covid crisis, and enabling hundreds of new employees to start each month. 

Gemma Littlejohns, Learning and Development Manager said, “It is wonderful for the team to be recognised for its dedication to providing more learning and development opportunities at a time of rapid change in the NHS. To put this in place quickly and respond to need, the team had to quickly research alternative delivery tools.

“Ensuring learning and development opportunities were accessible to all was vital, and the development of a webinar system to deliver learning, allowing colleagues to use computers or phones at work or at home proved very successful. The webinar system also offered the advantage of automatically providing data analytics, reducing administration time.

“Sessions were bite-size and run at different times to encourage staff from a range of work patterns to attend with subject matter experts from across the health board invited to deliver sessions.”

Rama Eriksson, Findcourses.co.uk sponsor of the Innovation in Learning and Development Impact Award said: "It’s not only the newest, shiniest approach that equals innovation. In the case of Hywel Dda University Health Board, they had a really impressive approach to a difficult setting for learning challenges. Innovation is relative and the specific challenges to learning adoption in the healthcare industry are especially hard to overcome, and that is why we are recognising their effort as Commended as part of this year's Learning at Work Week Impact Award."