Winter Team Forum 2019

Friday was a great day for The JGA Group, our first Team Forum in a new venue for 15 years! With all of the changes to the world of further education it was perhaps more internally focused than usual but feedback was that the 30+ staff, delivery partners and stakeholders enjoyed the full day of CPD and, more importantly learned lots!

With our being in a new office, sharing purpose-built facilities with Innov8 Training and Development in Hillingdon the day kicked off with building tours which were followed by a market and strategy overview by Richard Goodwin. This described JGA’s position and the practical ways forward. It needed two slides just to list our achievements since the last Team Forum in May 2018.

We have started a host of new initiatives, won lots of awards and are well financed, all bar one of JGA’s 20 or so training programmes are new within the past 18 months. Now we need to market and sell them effectively and make sure that we educate, train and support lots more people.

The sales team led by John Riley picked up this theme in the next interactive workshop. The marketing and events team lead by Jubril Enyoisi focused on ‘sustaining a premium brand and memorable stakeholder experience’ across the provision. After lunch Head of Skills, Biddy Lall focused on teaching quality and defining what makes a programme “JGA” and then Mesma presented their impressive new online quality tool – one to think about for the future. Finally most of us piled down to Innov8’s construction and motor vehicle workshops to learn how to change tyres and build brick walls. My learning was that I’ll never be a bricklayer, my wall was Pisan in its leaningness. 😊

Thank you in particular to the presenters and to our childcare specialists Judith Saxon and Nicola Saxon-Duke for whom the day necessitated a commute from Essex and an overnight stay.