The Cabinet Office has set out plans to push all generic civil service training through a new body, Civil Service Learning (CSL), which will deliver core elements of learning and development while appointing a private contractor to manage a booking system and buy further training on the open market.

The plans involve dismantling the National School of Government (NSG), with the aim of retaining a few key staff while passing its assets and some of its remaining workforce to the successful contractor.

Writing exclusively for Civil Service World, the Cabinet Office today argues that allowing individual departments to choose their own training providers has resulted in inefficiency and duplication that is “simply not sustainable”. A new ‘Common Curriculum’ is being established, covering all the skills required for work in the broader civil service plus a set of advanced and specialist courses such as leadership and health and safety training. After April 2012 all such training will have to be sourced through CSL, which will offer a blend of traditional classroom-based teaching and alternative forms of learning.

In particular, the Cabinet Office cites “e-learning and on the job experience” as key ways of developing skills, and argues that “the best learning comes from hearing directly from those who have undertaken the roles, and experienced the challenges”. From other sources, CSW understands that in return for an annual payment per staff member (of around £23 per head), departments will be offered e-learning websites and other training materials, and staff will be able to access some core civil service training and selected leadership courses. Other Common Curriculum training will be available at additional cost from private sector suppliers.

Under the plans, departments will retain control over areas of training that are unique to their fields of work, and the civil service professions will remain responsible for developing dedicated professional training. Meanwhile, CSL will take over delivery of some core civil service training programmes currently provided in-house: these will include the senior civil service’s ‘Basecamp’ scheme, the Fast-Track programme, and some parts of the Common Curriculum. The Cabinet Office article notes that the NSG “will be transferring some of its resources to CSL to deliver training in areas that we all agree should remain in-house.”

However, many of the NSG’s remaining staff are set to lose their jobs or transfer into the successful main contractor: speaking to CSW last week, NSG chief executive Rod Clark (pictured above right) acknowledged that the organisation “won’t continue in anything like its current form.”  Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office acknowledges that “there are some tough consequences for people currently working in learning and development. The introduction of CSL will mean that departments need to reduce the number of staff they have working in L&D, and those they retain will focus on learning specific to their business.”

Speaking to CSW, CSL director Jerry Arnott (pictured above left) explained that the new body is “an enabling organisation to make sure we get the best quality training for civil servants.” In future, he said, civil service training will be “moving away from the classroom and to a much more blended approach, with selected classroom learning alongside e-learning.”

Click here for the full Cabinet Office article plus a detailed CSWanalysis,  including interviews with Rod Clark and Jerry Arnott.

Written by Matt Ross, CSW