The Department was formed on 28 June 2007 from the DTI (now BERR) and the DfES (now DCSF). The Department accesses a range of corporate and professional skills development activities through these former Departments, in addition to internal provision in DIUS and that procured through external suppliers. Provision includes access to formal classroom training, e-learning, coaching, mentoring, and short seminars on a range of subjects. We also ran over 30 learning and development activities on 22 May as part of Learning at Work Day, in which a quarter of our people participated.
We link our learning and development provision to the Professional Skills for Government framework, the Government Skills Strategy and our business and improvement objectives enabling us to live the policies we prepare for Government.
The Department places great emphasis on developing the skills of our people, and we are preparing a skills strategy for DIUS which will continue to ensure we focus our development effectively to deliver the DIUS skills agenda.
Programmes which can be accessed support the following:
Leadership Development
Policy Development Skills
Strategic Thinking
Analysis and Use of Evidence
Programme and Project Management
Financial Management
People Management
Working with Ministers
Drafting and Writing
Communications
Professional Qualifications such as accountancy.
In addition, the DIUS regularly provides short business related seminars on key topic areas such as engagement and collaboration using social media and innovation through policy delivery.
Our policy is to promote the development of our people through a wide range of innovative learning and development opportunities which are not reliant solely on formal classroom training.