Case Studies

Challenge

Merlin Consultancy, a training designer, provider and consultancy service which works primarily within the hospitality sector, need leadership and management qualifications that are flexible and offer development opportunities for leaders and managers at a range of levels.

Solution

Merlin has now been delivering ILM’s leadership and management qualifications for over 15 years. The ILM qualifications provide the optionality and flexibility to tailor programmes to the needs of organisations and individuals.

Impact

These programmes have had a significant impact on the organisations and individuals that Merlin has worked with over the years, enabling a shift in mindset from tactical to transformational thinking and, ultimately, improving retention and progression.

Challenge

The Academy of Leadership & Management wanted to demonstrate the value of their development programmes for leaders, managers and coaches.

Solution

Becoming an ILM approved centre enabled The Academy of Leadership & Management to demonstrate the quality of their programmes and to use the ILM assessment process as a stimulus to take the leaders, managers and coaches on their programmes to a level of excellence.

Impact

The ILM qualifications provide a powerful recognition for learner achievement, demonstrating their growth in capability, knowledge and skills, as well as how they can effectively use these skills and knowledge for the benefit of themselves and their organisations.

Challenge

Learners with the British School of Coaching want a recognised qualification that will provide them with the underpinning knowledge and skills to progress their careers as leaders, coaches and mentors.

Solution

Delivering ILM qualifications demonstrates to learners that the courses have rigour and purpose, and provides them with the credentials to begin or further their career in coaching and mentoring.

Impact

Learners find the qualifications impactful and meaningful, and they value the recognition and enhanced reputation that an ILM qualification provides.

Challenge

TalentPool wanted to provide certified programmes in entrepreneurship and leadership which provide a flexible structure and give learners internationally recognised qualifications.

Solution

With ILM, they can provide quality learning experiences, timetabled to suit the needs of the learners, and the certified programmes with structured and verified assessments, enable learners to achieve a greater depth of learning.

Impact

Learners on the ILM programmes are delighted that certification and learning is a real option within the constraints of adult life, and additional qualifications in new areas is often life changing, with many having gone on progress in their careers or to start and grow highly successful businesses.

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Challenge

Results Driven Group needed qualifications they could deliver for leaders, managers and coaches that would align with their innovative, entrepreneurial, and solution-focussed approach.

Solution

They started delivering ILM programmes for leaders, managers and coaches in 2006 and are now one of the biggest providers of ILM qualifications in the UK. The flexibility of the programmes allows them to deliver open and bespoke courses in residential settings and online.

Impact

Results Driven Group “make learning stick”, through focussed, tailored and relevant courses that develop people as individuals and transform organisational cultures. Their firm focus on training ROI has led to significant measurable impact on the organisations they work with across the country and globe.

Challenge

The Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester needed an end-point assessment organisation for their flagship Level 7 Senior Leadership apprenticeship for leaders in health and social care that met their high-quality standards.

Solution

They chose ILM as their end-point assessment partner on this programme.

Impact

ILM’s high-quality, professional and responsive service supports students, tutors and wider teams to prepare for, and successfully achieve, their apprenticeship end-point assessment.

Challenge

Employees want career progression, job security and a high salary, whilst employers want a problem-solving workforce that can lead and manage change.

Solution

Design and innovate a new university qualification that could meet the needs of both the employers and employees. It was decided to map the new UWTSD qualifications against the ILM L4 and ILM L5 Certificate in Leadership and ‘double badge’ them respectively.

Impact

As of today, over five hundred students have successfully undertaken the qualifications with the number of students increasing year on year. Ninety percent of students are in work and many other students have reported opportunities for advancement following completion of the qualifications.

Challenge

Iceland wanted to ensure that they were proactively filling management skills gaps within their business, driving engagement with existing employees and attracting new talent through a powerful employee value proposition.

Solution

Iceland developed a range of in-house leadership development programmes, offered at all levels, from aspiring managers through to senior leaders, which they Assured with ILM.

Impact

As the “leading provider of leadership development”, ILM has added credibility to Iceland’s in-house programmes, increased colleague engagement and enhanced the customer experience.

Challenge

Specsavers needs to deliver effective leadership and management programmes across a range of levels and roles within their business.

Solution

As well as a range of self-led and in-house training programmes, Specsavers offers ILM Level 2 Team Leader and Level 3 Management qualifications to new and aspiring managers.

Impact

ILM is now “part of the Specsaver’s culture”, with colleagues placing great value on the qualifications. Providing this same foundation for junior managers across the business has enabled Specsavers to ensure that teams feel looked after and provide an outstanding customer experience.

Challenge

Hotel Management Company, Centre Island Hotels Ltd, wanted to provide outstanding leadership and management development programmes to enable the development and progression of their colleagues within their business which in turn would support their retention goals.

Solution

They chose to use ILM Assured to provide a quality benchmark and recognition of their in-house training.

Impact

The ILM process allowed them to fine-tune their programmes and improve procedures, as well as provide the leaders and managers on their courses with an ILM certificate and digital credential, which is already having an impact on the growth, mindset and aspirations of their colleagues within the business.

Challenge

Papa John's needed a tool that would empower leaders to make better business decisions and to create an environment in which their teams could thrive.

Solution

Papa John's designed a global development programme for Senior General Managers, which was assured by ILM.

Impact

The ILM assurance process enabled Papa John's to ensure consistent global delivery of their programme and to implement a plan of continuous improvement, whilst also providing their Senior General Managers with an ILM credential to showcase their achievement.

Challenge

St Andrew’s had a simple ambition: to enable people to work at their best.

Solution

They created a coaching community, using the ILM Level 5 Certificate and Diploma in Effective Coaching and Mentoring as their quality benchmark, to train the community of peer coaches to become fully qualified coaches, adapting and evolving the programme over the last four years to suit the changing needs of the organisation.

Impact

With three cohorts of coaches, a mentoring and reverse mentor programme and their first annual coaching conference, St Andrew’s have already seen a huge impact on performance, wellbeing, productivity and, importantly, employee happiness. Coaching has now been adopted as a core leadership style and is being embedded across the organisation.

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Challenge

When the COVID-19 pandemic first took the globe by storm at the beginning of 2020, one of the hardest-hit sectors was undoubtedly the education sector.

Chris Wain, Head of Futures at Shrewsbury School, took a moment to consider what could be done to ensure that pupils would continue to receive value and use their time in a positive way to achieve something new, even if it were a little different.

Solution

Not willing to let the year go to waste, The leaders at Shrewsbury School quickly sought out opportunities to keep pupils motivated, through additional course material designed to prepare them for life after school:

1. A University preparation course which was developed internally
2. The ILM’s Young Leaders Award

Impact 

Although the ILM Young Leaders Award was originally a contingency plan to counter the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on schooling in 2020, the school quickly recognised the value of the award, and have gone on to implement it as an optional activity, year on year. And in 2022, Shrewsbury School made the ILM modules available to William Brookes School. 

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Challenge

They realised existing training programmes were not able to offer employees the flexible and agile learning they needed to achieve their goals.

Solution

A third of employees now undertake specialised ILM qualifications every year, upskilling individual learners to improve independence and productivity and in turn building the highest performing teams possible for the organisation

Impact

Clients and staff alike are more assured than ever about the service and experience they get from the organisation.

Challenge

Managers felt a burden being a leader, and felt that they needed to have all of the answers to people's questions.

Solution

The ILM leadership and management programme was rolled out to over 2,000 managers. Through training, employees realised that by asking the right questions and listening, their colleagues were able to resolve their own issues. This led to a greater sense of empowerment in the team as well as better team work.

Impact

It helps reduce absenteeism and turnover. It also impacts the customers as they get real value when they visit the branches to speak to staff.

Challenge

Employers wanted qualifications that would fit around their workloads and help their career progression.

Solution

The ILM Management Apprenticeship offers a flexible approach to learning across multiple sectors using ILM’s resources such as work books and e-learning.

Impact

It helps to reduce staff turnover, encourage staff morale and reduce costs.

Challenge

Team supervisors within the construction industry were not able to deal with leadership and management issues. As a consequence, their teams lacked motivation, productivity and efficiency within their roles.

Solution

The introduction of an externally recognised construction-specific qualification and training program that offers immediate transferable skills. Employees can take the qualification during working hours, for one day per month over approximately 18 months. Sessions are built around interactive activities to keep the learners involved.

Impact

Better quality supervisors, more motivated staff, productivity and efficiency.