Spotlight On...Hannah Cook and Angela Cotter

(8 September 2017)

Angela Cotter (pictured on the right), Staff Learning and Development Partner for Humanities, and Hannah Cook, e-learning specialist focusing on enabling staff learning by embracing technology. 

Q1.  Angela, please can you tell us a little about the Staff Learning and Development team, and how you and your team support colleagues in the Faculty of Humanities? 

We have a fairly new team in Staff Learning and Development following a recent restructure.  This has meant changes both for our team and our approach to supporting learning across the University. The set-up of our new team means we can now take a more strategic approach to supporting learning and we have committed staff to support each Faculty with learning being created both for academics and PSS roles. Daniel Taylor, Danielle Cauchie and I will be working closely with staff in the Faculty of Humanities to support their learning and development needs. A quick visit to our new StaffNet pages will give you an idea of our approach to delivering learning that is easily accessible for everyone when they need it.

Q2. Hannah, you’re about to launch a major year-long project which features bite-sized training videos. How will Humanities staff benefit, and how can they get involved? 

Sixty Second Skills will benefit all staff by providing quick ‘how to’ videos to help develop a skill or provide new knowledge in short snappy chunks…perfect for anyone with a busy schedule! You can access the videos at your desk at the right moment for you and you can choose the topic that is most relevant to the work you are doing or the skill you want to develop. Or you can browse a completely new skill to see if you would like to find out more in future. As the name suggests the videos are bite sized and about 60 seconds long – though some may be a few moments longer if there is something exciting to say that you really shouldn’t miss!

Each Sixty Second Skills video will have a primary theme such as digital literacy, supporting students, or research management skills to name a few. The videos share skills, good practice and tips from staff across the University to help you in your role.  You can opt to sign up for regular emails and each Sixty Second Skills video will come straight to your inbox twice a week.

Our library of Sixty Second Skills videos is growing and we are keen to make sure we share the amazing skills we have within the university. If you have skills you can share and a great idea for your own Sixty Second Skills video, we would love to hear from you. Let us know and we can help you make this available to all. If there’s a topic we haven’t covered yet and you’d like to see – let us know too and we’ll make sure we include it going forwards.

Our WordPress site will allow you to search, rate and comment on Sixty Seconds Skills posts you found useful and our twitter account, @60secSkills, will be posting regular news and updates. Subscribe to our weekly email listserv here. 

Q3. Angela, if you could share just one key message about the Staff Learning and Development team with us, what would that be? 

Whatever your role, we feel that personal and professional development is key for people to progress and enjoy their roles and key to the success of the University. For us that means listening to people and teams about the challenges they are facing – and then providing learning and development solutions that help and support people to do their roles more effectively.

We’d like to create a learning organisation for our staff that rivals the learning experience we provide for our students and is at least as good as anything you might find in any other organisation, not just universities! 

Q4. Hannah and Angela, what’s the best bit of advice you have been given? 

Hannah: If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.

I think you can apply this to most areas of life and a little risk or creative thinking is always a good idea and could lead you to where you wanted to be or even better.  The magic happens outside your comfort zone! 

Angela: Mistakes are proof that you are learning!

As adults we sometimes ‘forget’ to learn new things because we are worried about not being successful first time. For me trying something new is about not always getting it right – but learning as we go and building on our experiences.