“Facilitation is a profession in its own right. There are skills, tricks, tools and theories, yet it still remains very practical. The LearningWorks facilitators brought it back to reality as well.”
Xavier coordinates and delivers core regulatory training for inspectors. As a former inspector, he brings front line understanding to his role “..I sort of naturally drifted more into a quality process support role, then reviewing processes and policies we had, and as we reviewed and changed them I again quite naturally started delivering some of that.”
He recognised that he could support his hands on knowledge with formal training. “I was lucky, because my team leader suggested the ATT4 course to me. Obviously being free was very helpful. I did not formally come from this field, so he felt it would be valuable.”
The course provided a confirmation of his existing experience, and also new insight: “Facilitation is a profession in its own right. There are skills, tricks, tools and theories, yet it still remains very practical. The LearningWorks facilitators brought it back to reality as well.”
Xavier enjoyed his study. The face-to-face and practical assessments were key but the fact that there was a backbone of the digital platform worked really well. And the work-based assessments meant I could tap into what I was actually doing and improve it or reconsider it, or even come up with something new. So that was very helpful. Those three things, tools, instructors and practical application mean I’d certainly recommend it.”
During lockdown, he had to adjust a face to face course for online delivery, and used the course plan template from the first ATT session to prepare: “It gave me the confidence to deliver online, which I didn’t necessarily have when I went in”.
Like all excellent facilitators, Xavier is selfreflective: “When I started doing this stuff eight years ago, I would have been more facilitator and content driven, whereas now I’m more driven by discussions generated in the classroom around key learning points, and getting the participants to put in the work to achieve the results. That’s been a shift over time, and this course really emphasised that big time.”
As for colleagues, Xavier “ ..would recommend this course as a mix of insight into what learning theory says and how it works in practice.”