Camden Council: Delivering high impact blended learning pathways
Discover how Camden Council’s strategic use of the Mindtools Content Hub has generated amazing feedback – from very different audiences.
The challenge
The London Borough of Camden Council is a hugely diverse organization, employing around 4,500 people across a vast array of roles. They are driven by strong values, including the mantra emblazoned on their office building: Not for the self but for all.
Camden’s Learning and Development team need to meet the diverse and evolving learning needs of all their people. Here are two examples:
1. Developing high-performing managers
Camden Council recognizes that managers play a tough, yet critical, role across their organization. They face many challenges and deserve support with their professional development, but traditional management development programs are expensive and time consuming. As Jackie Kennedy, Learning and Development Lead with Camden Council explained: “We wanted to help our managers learn in the flow of work, to work together and network. But they didn’t have any experience of social learning.
2. Supporting young people on the Kickstart scheme
Kickstart was a UK government funded initiative that ran between 2020 and 2022. The aim was to encourage employers to create job placements for young people on Universal Credit. Camden Council applied for funding to run its own scheme and on behalf of a diverse range of around 30 external organizations.
Camden’s L&D team had traditionally oriented towards face-to-face learning. However, they recognized that many of these young people were joining the world of work in an online environment. Many of the Council’s training courses were also designed for specific groups. For example, their domestic violence awareness courses were geared towards frontline social workers.
The Solution
1. A blended Management Development Program
The Council designed a management development program with a special emphasis on the strategic use of the management and leadership resources in the Mindtools Content Hub.
Their journey started with understanding the learning outcomes they wanted. They then mapped resources to those specific outcomes. Shunning traditional teaching methods, they built a pathway that was more self-directed, interactive and social.
Cohorts of managers met for fixed sessions, six weeks apart. They were introduced to Mindtools resources in areas such as managing team dynamics or having difficult conversations. Then they were empowered to go away and learn from the resources most relevant to their job role and challenges.
The solution
2. On-demand, accessible learning for the Kickstarters
In the move to online learning, Camden Council recognized the risk of overloading learners, especially the Kickstarters, as the L&D team trialled various virtual methods.
They drew on the Mindtools Content Hub to create learning resource packs. These ensured that their Kickstarters had easy access to relevant and useful information as they began assimilating with the world of work.
These resource packs included:
- Around 20 playlists on topics such as personalities, preferences, and professionalism in the workplace
- Further materials covering interview skills, customer service, project management, and CV building.
The results
1. For the blended management development program
Jackie describes the feedback as ‘amazing’. Managers have reported feeling less lonely, more connected, and empowered to learn in ways they actually enjoy. One standout result is that a number of cohorts have continued to meet up beyond the end of the program. As Jackie concludes: “That makes me happy because that’s what we want them to be doing.”
2. For the Kickstart scheme
Mindtools Content Hub enabled Camden to deliver flexible, accessible learning for new Kickstart cohorts, as well as extend resources to partner organisations. It supported young people transitioning into a largely remote working environment, helping shift engagement from face-to-face to effective virtual learning.
Overall, it strengthened Camden’s L&D approach, creating a more unified and inclusive learning culture with high-quality, on-demand content that meets the needs of both new and existing employees.
