This is how A&O fund Municipalities ensures sustainable employability

Sustainable employability and developing yourself are topical and important themes within every industry. Thus, having your own direction in learning is also indispensable within the turbulent environment in which civil servants operate. As a result, A&O fonds Gemeenten has started a collaboration with SkillsTown.

We spoke to Marieke de Feyter, program manager at A&O fonds Gemeenten, about how to keep the sustainable employability of municipal employees as optimal as possible.

Change requires development

A lot has changed in the municipal sector in recent years. Jobs are being filled in a different way or the work one used to do is disappearing. Marieke says: "In this turbulent environment, it is important to keep stimulating your personal development and make sure you can keep up with these kinds of changes. The role of a municipal official is less and less about enforcing and implementing laws and regulations and more about engaging with citizens and businesses. You are expected to think with the citizen and give them as many handles as possible with which they can get started themselves."

Get everything out of yourself

In cooperation with SkillsTown, A&O fonds Gemeenten has launched allesuitjezelf.nl. (formerly meesterinjewerk.nl) With this platform, the A&O fonds wants to support individual civil servants in stimulating self-direction, professional and personal development using various tools. In this way they want to increase the sustainable employability of their employees. They do this in cooperation with employers. Among other things, civil servants of municipalities and provinces are given the opportunity to learn online. For example, they can use a compact range of online courses, such as e-learning and webinars, free of charge.

Online learning encourages self-direction

Using this website, the A&O fund provides an additional tool for HR departments of the various municipalities. Marieke says: "As A&O fund we work a lot with HR departments and both employers and unions feel the urgency of self-direction and sustainable employability. Every employee is responsible for his own development, but the employer has a facilitating and stimulating role in this. In doing so, the employee can choose what to learn and when to learn it. This stimulates self-direction in learning," says Marieke.

Another reason why A&O fund prefers online learning is the way courses can be offered. Marieke explains, "Online learning is the ideal way to make knowledge available centrally, so that it can then be viewed decentrally and locally. This makes online learning a nice addition to the pallet of learning forms and is a tool that civil servants in all municipalities can make use of."

"So far, we do find that the idea of online learning is perceived as nice and employees perceive it as a gift."

Learning is not an end in itself

A&O fonds Gemeenten wants to support civil servants as much as possible in their personal and professional development. That is also immediately the core of allesuitjezelf.nl. "You should not see learning as an end in itself. It is a means to develop yourself and do your job well, but also to have a good life," says Marieke.

The employee himself plays an essential role in this, because personal development does not happen by itself. Marieke says: "It is in the employee's own interest that he is or becomes good at the things he does. We hope that employees take up that role by means of the site Meesterinjewerk.nl. So far we do notice that the idea of online learning is perceived as nice and that employees experience it as a gift."

Continue to monitor the process

A final tip Marieke would like to pass along to other organizations that are getting started with online learning themselves is to keep activating and monitoring. Marieke says, "First, make sure you introduce employees to the tools and give them room to learn. After that, it is important to continue to encourage personal and professional development throughout the process. Finally, there must be room for follow-up and application of the knowledge learned in practice. After all, the effect comes only when what is learned is used in practice."

Courses aimed at civil servants

Offering online courses is an important part of allesuitjezelf.nl. In cooperation with SkillsTown, a selection of courses that fit the work and responsibilities of civil servants was made. The content and form of courses were considered. Allesuitjezelf.nl focuses on career, development and professionalism and is open to every civil servant at municipalities. All online courses are free of charge.