Customer Story: British Airways’ Assured training programme

Quality assurance of their leadership development programme has helped the Leadership & Talent Development team at British Airways to fly high, with huge course uptake by colleagues and consistent delivery across the globe.

Following a period of rapid growth, British Airways recognised that many colleagues had been promoted into leadership roles without necessarily having prior experience or training in leadership skills.

Creating a development programme to support their leaders and managers became a top priority, reflecting the organisation’s strong commitment to investing in colleagues’ skills development.

BA Better Leader is British Airways’ flagship leadership development programme, consisting of three strands. On The Day Leader: for colleagues who don’t have fixed line reports but lead different teams day to day in operational roles. Leader Of Teams: for those with direct reports or those who influence stakeholders within their role. Strategic Leader: for senior leaders who set the vision and direction for the organisation, overseeing large, multi-level teams.

Once BA Better Leader had launched, the L&D team felt they needed something to raise the profile of the programme and encourage colleagues to enrol. External accreditation was their chosen solution and ILM, a part of City & Guilds, was their chosen partner.

By getting their programme Assured by ILM – a globally recognised brand for leadership and management qualifications – British Airways were able to articulate the quality and value of their programme to colleagues. An added incentive was the dual-branded digital credentials from British Airways and ILM – a transferable, verifiable certification of colleagues’ achievements.

“The reaction’s been incredibly positive. We’ve had huge uptake from people looking to broaden their skillsets. Our programme’s entirely voluntary and we have waiting lists now.”

AJ Balmer, Leadership & Talent Development Lead, British Airways

While the L&D team have been delighted by the programme’s impact on leadership within British Airways and the engagement from colleagues, they’ve also benefitted themselves from the Assured process.

“It was great to work with an external consultant because it validated the programme we designed in-house, making sure that we’re delivering best-in-class training across our leadership, across the organisation and across the world.”

Suzie Hawkes, Leadership & Talent Development Lead, British Airways

Having their in-house training accredited also gave British Airways more confidence in rolling it out across the globe. They wanted consistency throughout the organisation in core leadership skills, such as coaching, courageous conversations and performance management, which Assured enabled them to do, while still allowing adaptability for different geographic and cultural contexts.

Watch the video to hear more about British Airways’ leadership programme and their L&D priorities.

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