Jodie Faulkner is a Learning consultant at Sky. She recently completed her CIPD L&D Intermediate Diploma and is reaping the rewards at work. We caught up with her to find out more about her experience.

Why did you choose to take the qualification?

I’ve worked in L&D for many years and worked for a few different companies and covered various different aspects of L&D but the one thing that was always missing was that formal qualification. To do the formal training and make sure you are up to date is really important, and the CIPD qualification is well respected and well recognised in the industry.

Why did you choose the online course with CIPD and AVADO?

I’m a mum and I work full-time, my little ones are only 3 and 5 years old, so for me not having to go to a college and spend even more time away from them is brilliant. Being able to learn flexibly, at the touch of a button when I had time was the best thing for me. I could build in my learning either to my work day or an evening after my children were in bed. It was perfect for me.

How did you find the Virtual Learning Campus?

It is simple and easy to use, that’s what I liked most. I’m not the most technological minded so if I can use it anyone can!

When you log in you know exactly where you’re up to, see what you have done already, and how much you’ve got left to do with the percentage bars. The variety of the activities and the source material has been absolutely brilliant – it has really opened my eyes on how learning platforms can best be used.

My organised mind likes the fact that I can see what week I’m in and what I should be doing and that each week is focused on a specific learning aim that links to the assignment at the end of the module.

How have you collaborated with your fellow learners?

There have been group activities throughout, so we’ve collaborated either through the Virtual Learning Campus (VLC) or through Slack, the messaging and file sharing app. We used Slack for our group project and it was great interacting with different people, but also using a new piece of technology. It is something that I have now introduced at work; rather than having endless email trails we use Slack as a messaging tool and it is working really well.

Did you feel supported on the programme?

I definitely felt well supported. Our tutors Vicky and Liz have always been there for guidance, they’ve been brilliant. If I needed help, for me it easier for me to just fire off an email when I had time, and I found that Leslie or Vicky or Liz would get back to me at super-speed! And our Community Co-ordinator Leslie has been great too.

Have you applied any of your learning at work?

I’ve been doing a project at work about our induction model and I took what I had learnt about metrics and put it into place to measure our return on investment for our induction training. Since then we’ve actually started making some changes to what we are doing, so it was really useful.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the modules on social and collaborative learning and all the neuroscience that sits behind it. These are things that I’m putting into place with some of my projects at work; it has really reignited my curiosity and I’ve done loads more further reading.

Most importantly, when I’m discussing L&D at work here at Sky, before I might have been unsure but now I am leading the conversation and that’s down to the work I have done over on this programme, without doubt!

What’s next for you?

I really enjoyed the Future of Learning Hub, having access to that as part of the qualification has been great, so I plan to carrying on using it. In the future, I would definitely consider doing my Level 7 in exactly the same way. Before, the thought of going ‘back to school’ was a bit off-putting but this has completely changed my view on it.

Would you recommend it?

I have! One of my team mates started in October and another is looking likely for January. It was the best decision I’ve made to come on this programme!

If you have been inspired to find out more, please contact our Course Advisors on 020 7173 5909 for a free consultation.