An Old Warhorse

Funny how some sayings just ring true, isn’t it. The very best thing about our work is that we get the chance to work with real people who want to make a difference, and we've had a great three months.  Out and about meeting learners, discussing their views on quality and writing a report that describes what they think is important from a participants experience.
 
So when the big stick arrives, I ask myself-what’s wrong with this picture and two words pop into my mind-two words that reflect what’s wrong with Education in Scotland.  Now these two words don’t sit there all alone without any support, they embody the image of an unhealthy organisation that chooses to forget the importance of values and culture to quality performance. More importantly they omit the human experience, or chose to only have a one-sided view and approach.
 
We’ve worked with the learners to define what they think about what we do-and it's official we’re a quality-orientated organisation.
 
Apparently the staff, partners and learners’ forum are keenly aware of the importance of quality and the need for continuous improvement-which means we’re always looking for feedback.
 
It made me laugh to hear that from the learners' perspective we are always striving to:
 
·       Provide them with products and services that not only satisfy their   
        needs, but also exceed their expectations.
·       Ensure that our people support, facilities, programmes and events get 
        better each time.
 And that we’re also keen to work on:

·       Getting the processes right first time, every time (it’s a good aspiration-
        and I'm glad they noticed but ducks and paddling come to mind).
·       Removing waste/unhelpful experiences from our activities. 

As I listened to this chat I have to ask myself, who says learners may not want to talk quality-maybe they just need the space for some quality talking.

I prefer to use the words of Henry Ford to reflect our approach, 'Quality means doing it right when no one is looking' - it now seems we don't even have that luxury - but I'm not complaining.