Studies
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Our work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Walkgrove have worked with the FCO to develop and deliver successfully three bespoke e-learning products covering:
- Bilateral Diplomacy
- Creative Thinking
- Strategic Thinking
- Providing a flexible global network serving the government as a whole
- Delivering essential services to the British public and businesses
- Shaping and delivering HMG’s foreign policy
In addition we are currently working on packages covering Health and Safety and Cultural Awareness.
Bilateral Diplomacy
Bilateral diplomacy is one of the key activities that support the FCO’s work and the package is aimed at all 16,000 FCO staff; both UK based and locally engaged. Consequently the target audience is large, geographically dispersed, wide ranging and diverse in terms of job role, educational background, experience, and nationality. A significant number of learners have English as their second language. It was important that we adopted a style and approach that was simple, uses plain English but did not patronise or disengage learners. As well as working closely with FCO staff, Walkgrove sourced and engaged senior ex-diplomats Kishan Rana, Sir John Boyd and Alan Hunt to provide input and advice to the development of the storyboards.
The core of each module is a self-paced tutorial that delivers the key learning points in a sequence of text and images.
Each module is illustrated using a case study representing a typical diplomatic situation appropriate to the particular module. Background information about the diplomacy and the diplomatic process is available in a knowledge bank, accessed from an on-screen button.
The learner is accompanied through the course by a screen mentor and an ambassador. The mentor highlights points of interest and gives advice. The ambassador punctuates the tutorial with real examples and provides a historical perspective.
Modules end with a summary of key points and suggestions for further study and sources of information. Each module is followed by a short knowledge check, comprising multiple choice questions.
Modules end with a summary of the key points and suggestions for further study and sources of information.
The program concludes with a summary screen that includes a wrap up message, an invitation for the learner to provide feedback and acknowledgements to those contributing to the design of the product.
The program has been very well received and is considered to be relevant and appropriate for use by other government departments. Representatives from all interested departments were invited to its launch in London.
Creative Thinking
The FCO has a new Strategic Framework to guide its work in the future. This comprises three elements, reflecting the three main roles of the FCO:
In order to meet these priorities the FCO is having to become more careful in the management of its global resources and more dynamic in the way it responds to the changing world.
More resources are being deployed to ‘high pressure points’ around the world; therefore the organisation is having to realign the resources it has available.
The course designed by Walkgrove working, as usual, with sourced subject matter experts and the client’s own experts, delivers a combination of underpinning knowledge allied with an understanding of theoretical concepts. The core of the modules is a self-paced tutorial that delivers key learning points in a series of text and image screens.
One of the key challenges was to make the learning relevant to each learner given the wide audience. To help achieve this, the modules are illustrated by case studies to contextualise the content and make it feel realistic and relevant to the learner and their job function.
The case studies require the learner to make choices about what action to take in a given situation, and/or decide on the possible consequences of an action that has already been taken.
Strategic Thinking
In order to be able to lead change and meet its departmental strategic objectives the FCO require all its staff, from junior members to ambassadors, to think more creatively and in a more strategic manner. The FCO commissioned Walkgrove to develop a tutor supported strategic thinking e-learning program to deliver a combination of underpinning knowledge allied with an understanding of theoretical concepts.
One of the key challenges was to make the learning relevant to each learner given the wide audience. To help achieve this, modules are illustrated by case studies to contextualise the content and make it feel realistic and relevant to the learner and their job function. The case studies require the learner to make choices about what action to take in a given situation, and/or decide on the possible consequences of an action that has already been taken. Module 5 features a major case study to consolidate learning based on the fictional state of Ruritania.
In the final module (Module 6), learners are provided with a summary of the main learning points and are then encouraged to participate in an offline project-based activity supported by a manager, colleague, mentor or tutor – or a mix of these. Learners are helped to choose a challenge relevant to their own work in order to apply their newly acquired knowledge and are supported by Walkgrove e-tutors.
