Skills coaching and mentoring is an expansion of one-to-one training. At Oldfrog Training and Consultancy we have a holistic approach to staff personal development. We identify and focus on the core skills an employee needs to perform in their role and with the individual work out a plan to develop those skills.

Our programmes are tailored specifically to the individual, their knowledge, experience, maturity and ambitions and is generally focused on achieving a number of objectives for both the individual and the organisation. These objectives often include the individual being able to perform specific, well-defined tasks whilst taking in to account their personal and career development needs. Our Approach is designed to provide an effective process for staff to acquire new skills and where appropriate we use SFIA to provide n objective framework for defining and assessing staff skills against job role requirements.

We offer one-to-one or group coaching and mentoring services. By working closely with staff in their working environment we can build an understanding of the technical and soft skills needed for development and support teams to work effectively.

Typically coaching involves some or all of the following:

• evaluation of existing skills
• individual or group training plans
• self-paced training exercises using technologies and examples customised to your business sector
• formal and informal workshops discussing technology and best practice
• one-to-one code reviews
• individual advice and buddy mentoring

We use SFIA, the Skills Framework for the Information Age, which provides a reference model for the identification of the skills tailored specifically for the needs of the IT industry with the emphasis on developing effective Information Systems and making the best use of Information Communications Technologies. Using the SFIA Framework for general guidance Oldfrog Training and Consultancy will help your organisation identify and define different job roles and required skill levels. From these skill levels we will provide advice on how to implement a process that will enable your staff and managers to measure individual effectiveness against your role requirements.

SFIA Skill Categories & Responsibility Levels

The initial stage in the coaching process is an evaluation of the different IT roles within your organisation, which are then mapped onto one or more SFIA Skill Categories. For the identified roles we will specify the appropriate SFIA responsibility levels for each of the skill categories for that role; extending the SFIA Framework levels where necessary to support the roles and skills appropriate to your organisational structure and responsibilities. We take factors such as organisation size and role complexity into account. For example, we have found that large organisations usually have many staff performing distinct duties which map well onto the SFIA framework; whereas smaller organisations typically have a small number of staff with multi-disciplined duties which do not map so cleanly onto SFIA.

Detailed Skill Descriptions

For each identified role and responsibility levels Oldfrog Training and Consultancy will work with your staff to specify the underlying technical and other skills needed for that role at that level. This analysis will enable us to help your staff define an objective means of measuring the skill against the role requirements in order to support a fair and transparent appraisal process.

For the final part of the role definitions we will provide suggested training plans and learning objectives that will enable your staff and managers to understand the process for continuous professional development.