This website aims to help you as a manager to find practical approaches to implementing the Strategy. You may be at any one of these three starting points; you may be:

• New to the further education sector,
• Familiar with all aspects of training and education but new to management,
• Experienced in workforce development and needing to develop your organisation’s strategy.

Colleagues from across the sector, representing managers at all levels, were consulted on the purpose and structure of the website. Their views and their suggestions have influenced the final design of the site and its content. The website does not tell you to use one approach rather than another. It does not endorse the approaches or documents provided by any organisation. You are the best judge of what will work best in your own context.

How the website works

The website guides you around a cycle for workforce development represented by the image on the Home page.

The cycle is a generic one and can apply to any type of learning provider. You are welcome to use it in any way you like. As in any development cycle, the stages are not discrete, sequential steps. They often cross-reference to, or overlap with, each other. However, if you are new to workforce development, DEFINE is a good place to start.

The stages in the cycle

When you click on one of the stages, you go to a page that looks like this: For every stage in the cycle, you will find:

• A definition for managers, setting the stage in the context of the whole cycle;
• Guidance on what the stage means in practice for learning providers;
• An explanation of specific requirements for staff in particular roles;
• Links to templates or frameworks that you may like to adopt or adapt;
• Guidance on what is freely available, what may be copyright and what you may need to pay for;
• Signposts to what to do next.