The University of West England is a public research university located in Bristol, England. Receiving university status in 1992, UWE is home to around 30,000 students and 3,000 staff and is known for delivering a world-class education to all pupils. UWE were looking to build on their foundational knowledge of Microsoft 365 and progress with their learning through funded-workshops, delivered by a trusted Microsoft partner. That's where Changing Social came in – to deliver a programme of workshops that created a confident team of Microsoft 365 masters within UWE! We spoke to Felicity Cargill, a member the UWE team, to hear about the engagement.
Setting the Scene – What Support did UWE Need for Success?
It was clear to Changing Social when working with UWE that there was a real need to support businesses through their whole talent pipeline.
From school engagement to current workforces and beyond, through developing different skills in multiple ways, SMEs would work more efficiently and effectively than ever! Our project was focused around digital skills, and we found that there was a need for both high level technology skills and innovation through training, but also in creating quick wins and efficiencies through the current tech.
Microsoft 365 has always been a natural progression for anyone who has used a Microsoft application, but it can seem quite different to the old application style. Therefore, Changing Social were focused on helping UWE learn and take their skills to the next level, developing their communication and collaboration skills that are vital to helping the businesses grow.
Getting into Training – What did the Workshops Look Like?
Whilst Changing Social wanted to ensure that all the sessions were accessible for everyone, we understood that some people would only want to access certain resources on a specific application. When someone has limited time to spare for learning, it’s important to ensure that they can choose what workshops are most beneficial to them. With our flexible approach, we created a training programme that offered a broad and holistic understanding of Microsoft 365, but also allowed users to focus in on particular applications to get the most out of the workshops.
Another key feature of the workshops was the one-to-one support that Changing Social was able to provide to UWE. We held individual drop-in sessions with our expert Microsoft trainer Alice Goldie, allowing people to ask any questions or reconfirm information about the material they covered in the main workshops. This personalised piece of support was vital in making sure that UWE felt they had guidance at every stage of their learning journey.
Karen Lindsay from Futurum Careers really liked that “they were talked through all the offerings and what services would suit the business most. There was ample opportunity to choose, rather than being offered one option and that’s that. It was great to be able to keep the team informed of the layout of how the training would be prepared, and help our people prepare as they’re more likely to engage that way!”
The work that Changing Social did with UWE used simple and effective training to deliver a big impact.
Although many people were starting to advance to higher levels of learning, there was a need for a strong foundation of Microsoft 365 knowledge. Changing Social equipped users with a clear, working understanding of the basic principles of Microsoft 365, which then allowed them to build on this to more advanced skills such as creating workflows and automating processes. Additionally, workshops surrounding different communication methods within Teams helped users move away from outdated and inefficient communication, and utilise Teams chats and channels. With their new knowledge of Microsoft 365, UWE has sustained effective working throughout the organisation and avoided roadblocks like duplication, lengthy communication processes and much more.
Karen said that “the training sessions on Teams were particularly useful, and the fun you could have with it – like making banners and doing polls. We wanted to bring our knowledge in-house and it’s been useful to have those banners so we can go back to previous conversations.”
Perhaps the biggest goal that UWE had was to improve their confidence with Microsoft 365, and Changing Social managed to create an empowered group of employees with an extensive skillset. Building confidence around how to tweak and customise Microsoft applications to best work for them has helped UWE employees to use the technology to the best of their ability, producing a new standard of high-quality work!
