When considering public sector skills and what is needed to develop the workforce, there are a number of key considerations to make; none more important than context, as John Mark Williams, Chief Executive of the Institute of Leadership and Management explained.
For him, and a number of the other panellists on the first panel discussion at the PSE365 Learning & Development event, it was important whenever outlining the skills needed in the public sector to understand the context of the past 18 months and changing public sector services.
“It’s important to understand it will not be a radical change. It will be iterative. It will likely be two years until we see the impact on public sector leaders.”
Below the leadership team too, there’s changes being seen in the skills and types of people being prioritised for recruitment.
Trudy Birtwell, Director of Learning at SOLACE and a fellow panellist with John Mark Williams, added that they had “found it’s not so much about the specialist anymore. It’s about the all-rounder” when it came to council recruitment.
Skills and authenticity are increasingly becoming sought after, as well as the ability to engage with people.
Particularly after a recent period of lockdowns, restrictions and remote working, the ways in which we engage with local authority service users and fellow colleagues has dramatically shifted, but remains just as important.
Now, we are starting to see the need for the additional skills - the digital aspects and the leadership skills - become important to tie together the skills.
All content from the PSE365 Learning & Development event will be available to view on-demand. Register to join the platform here.
