The digital, data and information environment is moving quickly. Keeping up-to-speed with those changes, as well as preparing for those coming in future, can sometimes feel daunting. And that’s true for nearly all of us in different ways, whether we’re in a specific digital role, such as a User Researcher, or in a role where we use some sort of technology to do our jobs, such as a Tour guide or Chef. One of the biggest challenges we face at Parliament is making sure everyone in our parliamentary community has the digital skills they need to succeed in this environment. Both for their own development, and so that together we can make the most of digital and technological advancements for Parliament.
To achieve this, we wanted to put digital skills front and centre for everyone in Parliament, and to make these relevant to the different needs and aspirations of everyone here. So, we’re excited to launch a new Digital and Data Skills Centre of Excellence. The centre is for staff working in all roles across Parliament, as well as Members of the House of Commons, Members of the House of Lords and their staff. It’s intended to be a central hub for everyone to access support, resources and to grow in their digital and data skills and confidence.
What is a ‘Centre of Excellence’?
A Centre of Excellence is a team or unit within an organisation that looks at what skills, capability, and knowledge that organisation needs, usually within a particular area, like digital and data in this case. It provides initiatives and resources in response, and it makes sure these are driven by the needs of users, as well as organisational needs. It can also support career progression for those who want this.
This can all look quite different depending on the organisation. So, during the discovery stage, we looked at a range of external organisations to understand how they were approaching this, and to get ideas and inspiration. We learned a lot about how a Centre of Excellence could operate, and how it might work best for Parliament.
Some things which we decided we wanted to be principles of Parliament’s Digital and Data Skills Centre of Excellence are:
- The centre will be led by a group of multi-skilled professionals from across PDS. It will also have input from subject matter experts from across PDS and Parliament. And we’ll work closely with other professions in Parliament to help build a useful learning journey for colleagues whatever the topic or area of expertise.
- The needs of users will be at the heart of what we do. We’ll make sure the training, resources, and initiatives we provide are designed around the diverse needs of our parliamentary community. So that everyone can get the most from them.
- Best practice and knowledge are shared and embedded across the organisation.
- Learning is never finished! We’ll continue to learn from other organisations as we evolve the centre. And we’ll encourage a continual learning culture and mindset at all levels of the organisation. We’ll reflect regularly on what is and isn’t working well and consider likely challenges and opportunities so we can factor these into our approach.
How will the Digital and Data Skills Centre of Excellence deliver value for Parliament?
We are looking at the whole digital learning landscape across our organisation, and using this to develop learning, initiatives and resources that meet user needs. It is important to us that we make the learning journey as easy to navigate as possible, and for users to find the learning that is useful and relevant to them.
The Centre will support skills development for everyone in Parliament. This includes colleagues who use tech to do their jobs but don't necessarily see themselves in a 'digital role'. It will include those who may want to move into a digital role in the future, as well as those already in digital roles, who want to develop and progress. Some learning will be focused on digital and data skills for leadership. There will also be specific learning for Members of the House of Commons and Members of the House of Lords and their staff.
The work we’re doing to mature digital talent, skills, and capabilities across Parliament is a key part of the digital and data operating model which we wrote about last year. It’s also a vital part of the Information and Digital Strategy for Parliament.
An iterative approach
We’re taking an iterative approach to the Centre of Excellence, meaning we’ll test things, learn, and develop what we offer to meet the needs of our users.
First steps (Sept ‘24 launch)
We want everyone in Parliament to feel clear about where they can access digital and data support and learning. Our initial priority was to make sure we're taking a joined-up approach to existing learning and resources, so we began by collating these into one central place on Parliament’s intranet. This included various training courses, self-guided learning resources, a digital careers toolkit and a digital leadership programme.
Next steps
We are gathering further user insights to understand the value that everyone in Parliament is currently getting from our digital and data learning, as well as looking at skills gaps so that we can work to fill those gaps and needs. For example: AI skills for staff and Members of both Houses; Future Leaders development programme; any specific technical skills gaps for those in digital roles; and looking at where more communities of practice might be useful. And we are continuing to embed the initiatives we have already launched such as the Digital Careers Toolkit and the Leadership Learning Programme.
Our multi-disciplinary team
We’re making use of many different skillsets from across PDS to make up our multi-disciplinary team. This includes learning, skills, and capability specialists. It also includes colleagues from transformational change, business analysis, service design, user research, and delivery management. There are many benefits of working in this way, but for us the biggest one has been having the diversity of ideas and experience to help us shape the service.
What next?
I’m excited to see the Digital and Data Skills Centre of Excellence develop, and to see colleagues across the Parliamentary Community benefit from it. We’ve discussed principles and initial activity in this blog post, but in future I hope to be able to share some stories of how different colleagues across Parliament have grown in skills and confidence as a result of the centre. We’ll also keep you updated about how the centre as a whole is progressing.
We are also keen to talk to other organisations doing similar things, so if you want to have a chat and share ideas please contact us at DDSkillsCentre@Parliament.uk