When Surrey County Commissioner was appointed to his voluntary role at St John Ambulance Surrey, he wanted to put in place a formal management training programme. Thales immediately appeared the perfect fit for his requirements and created a bespoke four-day management course for the junior officers. This has standardised training across the county and broken down barriers between divisions. Volunteers now feel more motivated, and can take the skills they have developed into their work and home lives.

Benefits
· Junior leaders have confidence and feel empowered in their roles
· Attendees receive a formal qualification from the Institute of Leadership and Management, with one member receiving promotion in work partly as a result of his achievement
· All members are voluntary and training provides an incentive that St John Ambulance cannot deliver through other means, such as pay
· Management and leadership practices are standardised across the county
· People are staying longer with St John Ambulance Surrey
· More people are applying for posts in the organisation – even those outside their division
· Some members have benefited from learning other new skills, such as negotiation, through places on complimentary courses offered by Thales

St John Ambulance Surrey

St John Ambulance is a volunteer-led organisation in the UK. The organisation relies heavily on volunteers to carry out assigned duties for the charity within the local community. St John supports many high-profile events around the UK, and Surrey is continuously busy supporting events both in the county and on a national basis.

St John Ambulance Surrey covers the entire county and has about 1,000 volunteers, equally split between adults and youths.

Formalising management training

When Surrey county commissioner, John Griffiths, took up his post four years ago, he decided to focus on the training and development needs of St John’s managers. “There was no formal management leadership training,” he recalls. “I wanted a more professional level of training and for managers to receive a qualification from a credible organisation.”

What St John Ambulance Surrey needed was an external training provider who would be sympathetic to the needs of a volunteer-led organisation, but impart professional knowledge and management principles used in the commercial world.

The training programme

John contacted a couple of training providers, one of which was Thales Training and Consultancy, a specialist provider of training and development programmes. Immediately, John knew he had found the right provider for St John Ambulance in Thales. “I liked their approach,” he remembers. “They were very friendly and customer-orientated, and it was their attitude that made me realise they were the right people for us.”

Thales was also willing to design a bespoke course for St John Ambulance Surrey taking into account a number of key management competencies John wished the training programme to address. “We wanted a course designed at Divisional Superintendent and County Staff Officer level,” says John.

Divisional Superintendents run a division based on a town, while staff officers are responsible for training, membership and provide support at head office. “I believe that the key to the success of a good division is a good superintendent, which is why I bought in Thales to provide a credible training programme and give our superintendents accreditation with the Institute of Leadership and Management,” he adds.

Thales visited St John Ambulance Surrey and was briefed by John on the set-up of the organisation, how it worked and where it was represented in Surrey. From this initial discussion, Thales devised a four-day course and ran a two-day pilot with selected Divisional Superintendents. “It was a little crammed,” admits John, “as we tried to get a lot of information into the two days. We then obtained feedback and agreed how the course would work.”

The course took place over two weekends and covered the principles of management, including topics such as presentation skills, interviewing and basic management techniques. “It covers generic leadership and management skills, but what Thales do well is pick up the feeling for what St John does and then tailor the course to suit our requirements,” says John.

Working for St John Ambulance is voluntary, so John had the thankless task of trying to persuade volunteer members to commit to attending the training over a weekend. Most of the delegates have full time day jobs to contend with and St John duties at the weekend. However, the take up of the training programme was excellent and 100% of invited delegates attended the training programme over two separate weekends.

Thales also created a course consisting of three one-day modules for St John Ambulance Surrey’s ten senior managers at Assistant and Deputy Commissioner level. This course covered more advanced principles of management, such as team bonding and strategic planning.

“Thales’ trainers are very flexible and if they feel people want to explore something off curriculum, they will,” explains John. “For example, on the senior management training, Thales facilitated what we wanted rather than following the curriculum, as they realised that unless they sorted out a particular concern we had, delegates would only get a limited amount out of the course. So over the three-day course, we looked at the concern we had as the basis for the training.”

Bringing confidence to the team and breaking down barriers

In the first year of working with Thales, St John Ambulance ran three courses. Last year, it ran two and John expects to do the same number again in 2006. “The courses have evolved well over time,” he says. “For example, the original plan was that we would use a Thales trainer in conjunction with a St John Ambulance trainer to give the St John bias to the training. However, one of the things we found in the course feedback was that volunteer members preferred to not have a St John trainer, as they felt the Thales trainer was totally unbiased so they could express their true feelings during training.”

The trainers from Thales have impressed John: “they have both been outstanding,” he says. Thales has also demonstrated its understanding of the constraints voluntary organisations face. “They recognise we are a charity and have gone out of their way to help by offering us free places on other courses that they are trying to get off the ground or where they have spare places available,” explains John.

Above all, he points out, “The training has empowered our junior leaders to have confidence in what they are doing,” he says. Members who participate in the training receive accreditation from the Institute of Leadership and Management, and John cites the case of one member who was promoted in his job partly on the back of his new qualification. Another volunteer, Corinna Hardware, says: “My personal objectives were met and I have been enthused to go further. I aim to improve my assertive approach to situations within St John.”

John acknowledges it is difficult to measure the success of any training programme, but says: “as the Commissioner I can tell you it works. Motivation is certainly part of it, as we are giving them something they can take back to their work or home life. It also standardises the way people are working as leaders and managers.”

One knock-on benefit from the training is that it has broken down barriers between divisions, which John is keen to push further. “Superintendents have got to know each other and built up relationships,” he says. “We have had people apply for appointments outside their division, which is unusual, but something I want to encourage.”