Year 1 of the project involved:
- Appointment of Project Co-ordinator – promoting, progressing and implementing project concept within the three participating organisations
- A series of presentations from inspirational women
- Developing and delivering a needs based programme of short courses
- Promoting Career advancement and providing preparation for interviews
Year 2 of the project, to date, has seen:
- Further development of an evolving needs based programme of short courses
- The piloting of a mentoring scheme which crosses three public sector organisations.
Introduction of Life coaching - Enhancement of job-skills/job enrichment
- Sponsorship of academic fees for women pursuing accredited learning
- Promotion of non-traditional roles and academic courses
- Development of a comprehensive programme of IT courses (accredited and tailored)
- Local delivery of Prince2 Foundation Course in Project Management
- Increased focus on Customer Service
Achievements to date:
The following numbers of women have benefited from opportunities, which would not otherwise have been available to them:
- 217 women have participated in the programme (117% above target)
- 120 women have achieved an accredited qualification, or other qualification, that previously would not have been available to them (50% above target)
- 54 have been sponsored to undertake academic/professional courses - (170% above target). 66% of these would not have been sponsored without the support of the WRAPS project
Motivation
Aims
The WRAPS project aims to:
- Redress the gender imbalance of the workforces
- Empower women for advancement and enhance skills, develop confidence and raise self-esteem
- Reduce barriers that prevent women from participating in training such as childcare/dependent care and travel
- Unlock potential through life coaching, mentoring, non-traditional job paths, and develop job enrichment through empowerment and leadership
- Improve the availability of quality training opportunities locally
- Encourage more women to present for interviews
- Encourage female staff to focus on career development
Business case
Statistics at the time of submitting the funding application showed:
- There were no female Chief Executives employed in any of the 26 Councils in Northern Ireland
- Women made up only 18% of the top two management tiers across the Councils
- 14 out of the 26 Councils had no women employed in the top two tiers
These figures indicated there was a need to up-skill and re-skill women to ensure that the organisations were making the most of all available talent. The organisations are undergoing mergers within their sectors as a result of the Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland and it was imperative that women were not further disadvantaged as a result
Senior management commitment.
Senior Management representatives from across the organisations were involved in identifying the need and developing the project. They also ensured that the project was:
- Reviewed at Council level with elected members and included as an agenda item at Senior Management Team Meetings
- Promoted at stakeholder meetings
- Included as part of the Internal Communications programme
- Promoted to Staff who were encouraged to attend events and allowed paid time-out to participate in WRAPS activities
Senior representatives also attended meetings and participated in learning and development activities. One Senior Member participated in the Federal Executive Institutes Leadership programme in the USA and the Chief Executive undertook to oversee her Department in her absence.
Accountability.
Managers are responsible for the business planning process and ensuring staff are competent in meeting the targets set out in the plan. Completing annual performance appraisals of staff and identifying learning and development needs are a key part of this process.
The WRAPS project has involved managers at all levels. This has been done through:
- Liaison with Human Resources staff regarding corporate and individual learning and development needs
- Direct contact with managers through one-to-one discussions
- Distribution and collection of training needs analysis questionnaires
- Participation in events
Action
Innovation
Omagh Council has identified the following innovative aspects of the programme:
- Recognising the need at the outset
- Positive Thinking/Confidence Building workshops
- Partnership collaboration, shared learning and networking
- Un-prescriptive short-course programmes/choices
- Sponsorship for accredited courses
- Life coaching and mentoring
- Managing change/seeing change as an opportunity
- Ability to react and adapt to changing needs
Mainstreaming
The partnership working between the organisations has become an integrated part of the programme and has added value to the courses through shared experience.
The WRAPS project features representatives from all three organisations to ensure that the learning and development needs are identified and actioned. Women from all organisations have participated in the short-course programme and all organisations have women receiving individual sponsorship.
Communication
The programme has been communicated via various means, including:
- Council, consortium, management and stakeholder meetings
- Direct contact and networking with advisory organisations
- Internal and external magazines, intranets, e-mails, notice boards and flyers
Impact
The programme has had the following impact:
- Increased confidence and self esteem of the women participating
- Changed perspective on learning and development
- Enhanced skills and qualifications through personal development and short courses
- Increased motivation of staff
- Better equipped management, the organisation and staff for the changes associated with the Review of Pubic Administration
- Ensured that the benefits of new approaches to learning such as mentoring, and business coaching are embedded within the organisation
- Improved customer service and created savings as a result of efficient service delivery
- Omagh District Council recorded that in 2007 there were more than four times the number of females promoted than in 2006 (increased from 4 to 18) and that the number of women applying for funding for academic courses, within the learning and development policy, doubled for the year 2007 (increased from 9 to 18).
- Omagh District Council recorded in 2006 that successful applications for funding and day release for academic courses were 50% male, 50% female. In 2007 it was recorded as 18% male and 82% female.
- 20 female staff are now qualified and equipped to apply Prince 2 techniques to Project Management
Sustainability
The project has allowed a more positive focus on the opportunities presented by change.
Examples of sustainability include:
- The emphasis on career development and continued support for individual study
- Sourcing funding opportunities for further development
Learning
Omagh District Council acknowledges that the impact has been greater than anticipated and has gone beyond the workforce to have a positive impact on the wider community. The project has evolved over its lifetime and adapted to the changing needs of the organisations. The organisations were encouraged by the rapidly changing perception of employees and their willingness to participate.
