Here you can find all of Happy’s blog posts, covering our Excel hints and tips, ideas for creating happy workplaces, and ways to be more productive at work — and more.
“I felt totally out of my depth when I started this course in October 2022. As someone with dyslexia only diagnosed at 15, I left school with a handful of low-grade GCSEs and genuinely questioned whether I belonged in the room on a Level 7 programme." "As we head into 2025, I feel both Dogstar and I are far better prepared for whatever comes next."
Giving your staff more autonomy means they don’t require as much oversight, freeing up the time of managers. It allows people to take ownership of their work, feel trusted and confident, and creates more joy at work. Implementing it, however, can be tricky. Alun Pomfrett, HR Manager at Leicester-based Cocoa Amore and graduate of Happy’s Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme has developed a very simple way to make autonomy work for your staff, as he explains at the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference.
How much money would you trust your employees to spend, without checking with their manager first? £50? £100? How about £50,000? Helen Taylor from the London Borough of Hounslow, who is currently enrolled on the Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme, explains in this talk from the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference how she has implemented a system where her staff are Pre-Approved to spend £100,000.
The quality of Happy's apprenticeship programmes has recently been recognised as Good within the Ofsted further education and skills inspection. Ofsted reviewed the overall effectiveness of our quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and apprenticeships, giving us the Good mark on each and every category.
Join us for a free, interactive online celebration on Tuesday, 15th October from 10am, as we honour Black History Month and showcase the incredible talent within our Global Majority leadership community.
Many years ago, an apprenticeship was something that young people did at the beginning of their careers to learn a vocation in a hands-on way from an expert. However, in the last 20 years that has drastically changed. Apprenticeships are now available to anyone, of any age and at any stage of their career, in a range of subjects. Happy has run leadership apprenticeship programmes for several years now at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7. Emma is an alumni of Happy’s Level 5 Apprenticeship Programme for Experienced Managers which she found invaluable. Emma talked about her experience with the programme and how it’s affected how she works at the 2024 Happy Workplaces Conference.
“Your Level 7 Senior Leadership apprenticeship is absolutely brilliant,” says Jason Michell of TypeFi. “One of the best things I’ve done in the last decade. It’s the best money I’ve never spent.” The Level 7 Senior Leadership programme is paid for from the Apprenticeship Levy if you have over £3 million in payroll. If not, the government pays 95% of it, so your organisation pays just £700 for a two-year leadership programme with monthly workshops and regular coaching.
Happy provides a Level 3 programme for first-time managers, team leaders and supervisors, a Level 5 programme for more experienced managers and department leaders, and a Level 7 programme designed for senior leaders who want to make a real cultural change in their workplace. These programmes have a focus on trusting your people and creating a culture of self-management. They are funded by the Apprenticeship Levy.
Our Level 7 Senior Leadership programme is about significant change in how you run an organisation. It takes place over two years and is designed for senior leaders who want to make a real change to the culture of their organisation. Practical and hands on, you will learn how to increase trust and autonomy in your workplace. Melanie Cohen, Director of Bluebird Care (Bournemouth & Poole), started the programme in April 2021. This is her story.
Today we started the first Drupal pre-apprenticeship programme. The idea of the course is to find school leavers with an interest in and aptitude to coding/web development and help a young person get their foot on the ladder to employment. This intensive two week course will cover the basics of using Drupal, HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. Currently four organisations have committed to taking on an Apprentice, so we will prepare this group of school leavers and get them ready to go out to an interview.