Learning at Work Week winners show how bold and creative learning campaigns reap gains

The winners of the 2017 Learning at Work Week Impact Awards have been announced by the Campaign for Learning. The 2017 award winners show how bold, creative campaigns support innovation and drive cultural shifts in the way people view learning, access development and become co-creators of learning at work.

Learning at Work Week takes place in May every year. It is coordinated by the Campaign for Learning and is led by companies and organisations in their workplaces. Firms use the week to promote their current learning and development programmes and trial new ways of learning at work. The Open University Business School sponsors the Impact Award for Supporting Business and Organisational Goals.

This year’s entries clearly demonstrated a passion for learning, with many organisations offering a diverse set of learning activities and opportunities to maximise employee, and in some cases, community participation. I was impressed by the scope and scale of activities; the tools and techniques used to encourage participation; and the resulting value to the organisations that was achieved. It serves as a good reminder that learning can be highly impactful, and needs to be actively encouraged not just in learning at work week, but at all times.

Penny Asher
Director of Executive Education, The Open University Business School

The successful organisations in the 2017 Impact Awards are:

The Open University Business School Impact Award for Supporting Business and Organisational Goals

• Winner Large Organisation: Jagex
• Winner SME: Bristol Energy
• Highly Commended Thomas Cook and Xero

Pearson Impact Award for Promoting a Learning Culture

• Winner Large Organisation: Virgin Media
• Winner SME: Bristol Energy

OCN London Impact Award for Inspiring Learning for All

• Winner Large Organisation: Jagex
• Highly Commended: Global and Xero

Findcourses.co.uk Impact Award for Innovation in Learning and Development

• Winner Large Organisation: The Bread Factory
• Winner SME: Learning Services, Edge Hill University
• Highly Commended: Thomas Cook and Essex County Council’ Essex Social Care Academy

The Campaign for Learning Impact Award for Inspiring Curiosity and Creativity

• Joint Winners Large Organisation: GroupM and Essex County Council’ Essex Social Care Academy
• Joint Winners SME:  Taylor Vinters and Sheffield Combined Court Centre
• Highly Commended: HMCTS London Region

It’s great to see so many companies use Learning at Work Week to build momentum for learning at work in creative and imaginative ways. The week is a great opportunity to nurture the different ways we can learn at work and build learning cultures. This year’s ‘Curious & Creative’ winners, and indeed all of the successful organisations in this year’s awards, showed how this can be done successfully. They ran ambitious and vibrant programmes that used different ways of learning and communications to intrigue, excite and engage. They recognised the value of bringing colleagues together to share their skills and passions leading to gains for both individuals and their organisations, and sparking further learning. We hope more companies are inspired by them to get involved in 2018.

Julia Wright
National Director of the Campaign for Learning, which organises Learning at Work Week

For summaries and details of the winning events, please go to The Campaign for Learning website.