Launching Changeboard’s Future Talent Group brand last week, CEO Jim Carrick-Birtwell welcomed senior HR professionals to the British Library for Christmas drinks.
“We’ve been on a bit of a journey,” he said, explaining the company’s evolution from job board to provider of content, events – and now corporate learning.
“Along the way, we’ve built a community of HR professionals through a focus on editorial and leadership insights that support people making big decisions about their career. We’ve developed content products and started getting involved in events. We want to be right at the progressive end of what is going on at work.”
Focus on learning
Changeboard’s Future Talent Conference launched seven years ago, covering macro themes from globalisation and technological change to mental health, diversity and inclusion. Our magazine recently rebranded to Future Talent to align with this, and our seventh conference takes place on 19 March 2020.
“We’re really proud of the work we’re doing in the education space as well,” continued Carrick-Birtwell. “We launched Future TalentEd two years ago and produce a magazine linking educators and employers that goes to every secondary state school in the country, each term.
“We’ve tried to bring learning into everything that we do, and we’ve had feedback asking us to curate corporate learning journeys. People have told us that they have funds earmarked for training under the Apprenticeship Levy that they cannot spend, because there just aren’t the programmes available.
“So, I’m delighted to announce that next year, in the spring, we’re launching another business called Future Talent Learning, which is aiming to do exactly that. We’re mapping a series of learning journeys, one for managers and experienced managers (level 5) and another (at level 3) for entry-level talent that will launch in October.
Commercial interpersonal skills
“Essentially it’s about mindset: agility, collaboration, transformation. Heads of talent say they have people in their business who are technically strong but need support with these commercial ‘soft’, interpersonal skills.
“We’ve set ourselves a brief to reimagine learning,” he concluded. “In a world of disruption, that feels very necessary. We’re partnering with some amazing people such as Rada Business and the School of Life and working on content with some of the best business schools in the world. We’re creating immersive journeys, supporting behavioural change and democratising learning for employees.”
- Watch this space for a full brochure about our Transformational Leadership Programme, out soon.