Meet three members of staff who's learning has helped them in their current roles and beyond!
Let’s hear from some of our colleagues who’ve benefitted from the work of the Learning & Development team. We sat down with Izzy, Ada and Rory to find out how they’ve upskilled, and how it’s helping them progress.
Welcome everyone! Could you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your roles?
- Izzy: So, I’m Izzy and I’ve worked in the office for 15 years. I’m an EDI Project Delivery Officer at MI5, which means I deliver all sorts of EDI-focused initiatives for the organisation.
- Ada: Hello, my name is Ada and I’m a Recruitment Officer at MI5. I collate and write exciting marketing content for our Early Careers’ recruitment campaigns. I’ve been in the office for nearly 5 years and used to work with Izzy in the EDI team – nice to see you again!
- Rory: And I’m Rory. I’m a Senior Manager in one of our data acquisition teams. My role involves leading several projects that identify and acquire the data which MI5 needs to fulfil its remit.
Let’s get straight into it – what learning are you currently undertaking or have you recently completed?
- Rory: Shall I start? I recently did a beginner’s programming course in writing Python code which was funded by my personal learning budget. People use Python to analyse data and build software, develop programmes and automate tasks.
- Izzy: I have actually just enrolled in a Charted Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) HR course, which aims to give participants an understanding of HR principals – also funded by the office.
- Ada: And I recently took part in an in-house introductory User Experience (UX) Design course. It was over two days and taught us the principals of UX design, using a real-life brand so we could apply the design theory to our learning.
- Izzy: Oooh, I did that course too. It’s so good. I learnt so much and use the techniques they taught us in most of my work.
- Rory: Where can I sign up??
- Ada: Well, anyone in the office can sign up regardless of their role, skills or background so I’ll give you the trainers’ details!
Why did you each choose to do this learning?
- Rory: As my role involves managing data analysts, I chose to do the Python course to give me a better understanding of the work my team do. I’ve learnt loads about tech platform languages and the process to write, validate and test the product code.
- Izzy: Sounds so interesting Rory. I wish I could have the patience to learn a skill like that! So, I chose the CIPD course because it helps me apply HR practices to EDI and will ultimately help me to embed EDI into the organisation with greater efficiency.
- Ada: For me, as a large part of my job requires me to work on projects for different customers. I thought a UX Design course would be a useful tool, whether I’m designing a new marketing output, or in my day-to-day project work.
- Izzy: Mine’s also an online course, so I can do it from home, meaning I can learn in my own time and without distractions.
- Ada: Being able to learn from home helps so much. I can concentrate so much better there.
- Rory: Mine’s online also. I work in the office most days, but I can dedicate the time to do this learning at home.
Brilliant thank you. And how will this learning help you in your current and/or future roles?
- Izzy: I’m hoping it will help me build upon my current HR knowledge. Already, it is helping me think of the bigger picture, and apply HR principles and best practice to some of our up-and-coming EDI initiatives.
- Ada: As most of my work is customer-focused, it helps me understand my customer and put them at the forefront of every piece of work I do, which is what UX design is all about.
- Rory: As a Senior Manager, my role will always have a central element of problem solving and strategy. My learning allows me to have more in-depth conversations with the team about data programming and helps me make more informed decisions.
- Izzy: I think for me also, if choose to stay working in HR (which I hope to do) it will give me a good HR knowledge base that I can draw upon for these roles. But a lot of the principles, I can see being useful in other roles.
- Rory: I think that’s nice about a lot of the learning we do – you can apply it to so many roles in the agencies, so it always comes in handy.
- Ada: I totally agree. I did my course when I was on the EDI team, and it has been so useful in both my roles. I can see myself using what I learnt in the future.
So, next question. Is there any other learning you’d like to do in the future?
- Ada: I’ll go. As my role requires me to write and oversee the design of our marketing content, I’d like to learn more about neurodiversity and disabilities, so that what we are publishing is inclusive and accessible to all.
- Izzy: That’s so important, as you know Ada from our time on the EDI team. It’s great to hear that more teams in the office are thinking about this and taking action.
- Ada: Thank you. It’s definitely something that is a priority for all our recruitment teams. We want to ensure all our candidates have the best experience when they apply to work for the agencies, and support is put in place if they need it.
- Rory: I am increasingly drawn to better understanding risk models and risk management. I am considering enrolling in some external courses which will help me identify the best approach to risk in my current role. This would help if I choose to work in security in the future, which I would like to do.
- Izzy: I’d really like to professionalise my EDI HR career by undertaking more CIPD training. After spending most of my career in operational roles, I never thought I’d be working in HR, and working towards being an accredited HR professional. It’s great.
And finally, what is the learning culture like at the Intelligence Agencies?
- Ada: There is so much you can do. You can attend online workshops, ‘Lunch and Learns’, in-person courses, and shadow other teams. There really is something to suit everyone’s learning goals.
- Rory: Couldn’t agree more. We are encouraged to have a growth mindset and at MI5 we write a Personal Development Plan (which we review each year), designed to develop our careers over the next 3 – 5 years.
- Izzy: The culture is one of flexibility and support, for sure. I think it’s great because you can do such a variety of learning and developing and choose things that work for you. Lots of mine is done remotely (at home), which I really like.
- Rory: And managers are also super supportive and encouraging when we want to take time out to learn. I love hearing what learning others are doing at our monthly departmental calls. It always gives me good ideas on what to do next.
- Izzy: The beauty of the agencies is that there are so many avenues you could go down, and build broad or expert knowledge, which is transferrable across so many careers.
Please note - the models shown are not employees of MI5, MI6 or GCHQ and are for illustrative purposes only.
