From skills talk to skills action: Giving new skills somewhere to land

Dates
Tuesday, December 8, 2026 - 14:00 to 15:00
Location
Microsoft Teams
Laura Overton

A skills planning masterclass with Laura Overton and The Open University

Join learning analyst and author Laura Overton and The Open University for an interactive masterclass exploring how organisations can turn skills planning into meaningful workplace action.

Register here

The background

A year ago, The Open University launched its free Skills Starter tool to help the many organisations who need help and advice with making a start on or refining a skills plan.

The tool was created in collaboration with learning analyst and author Laura Overton, and TrainingZone and sends users a set of resources and a plan-on-a page to help start their thinking in the areas they’ve highlighted.

Learn from other organisations

With the tool now one year old, Laura has been analysing data from users of Skills Starter as part of a new benchmark report. Half of organisations using the tool say new learning loses out to daily pressure, and almost half say people are mostly left to figure it out on their own.

Join the masterclass – for free – to hear more about these insights and how you compare to others.

Three things you'll take away from this session

1

One small change that helps new learning get used within a week rather than forgotten

2

Three powerful questions managers can use to create safer spaces for learning

3

A clear first step for your Skills Starter plan and the best resource to use next

Who should attend

The session is open to anyone already using Skills Starter to open the conversations needed to build workplace skills and to anyone just starting out.

We’ll look briefly at what the benchmark report is telling us about the biggest challenges and how to overcome them.

We're looking forward to meeting you.

Session details

  • Date: Tuesday 8 December
  • Time: 2pm-3pm
  • Location: Microsoft Teams

You’ll get the most out of this session if you complete the free Skills Starter in advance.

Register here