Roots and Shoots in a Climate Changing World: A Case Study in Continuing Professional Development

I have been evoking the tangible and intangible benefits of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), in all of its forms, in Higher Education (HE) now for nigh on 20 years, and intend to continue to do so for a few more years yet hopefully.
More recently there appears to have been a definite shift in the listening, interest and receptive nature to these CPD conversations.

There are some fantastic interventions happening in the CPD area across HE, and I am sure there will be many more. In delivering these programmes, I am also sure that anyone involved in such activity would agree that we always put together an effective event to match businesses’ requirements and focus lots of effort in these areas to get it right. And then we move on to the next pressing engagement as our successes fizzle away in the wake of our evaluation sheets.

Reflecting on CPD Delivery

My experience on a recent project has given me the opportunity to reflect again on how we deliver CPD, and how we could raise the profile and illustrate the importance of CPD in HE circles.

The University project I refer to in this blog (‘the Weather Academy’) and the trajectory it is taking has mainly come about, I believe, because of the CPD input at the outset. And now, the overall ongoing project is benefiting from some great follow up activity and promotional publicity.

All of this has inspired me to put this piece together as a working illustration of how the roots of University delivered CPD can lead to other ripening shoots of activities in the wider spectrum of University engagements. I am sure this happens many times but is not always captured or maybe just forgotten about in the scramble to just keep the project moving, and CPD maybe doesn’t always get the credit it deserves in the bigger picture of University activity.

The Weather Academy

I first became involved with the Weather Academy project when CPD discussions were happening around a partnership forming between Newcastle University, the Met Office, and Network Rail. This partnership aimed to improve understanding of the risks of extreme weather for rail travel, and became the Weather Academy.

Naturally, there were challenges during the process, including even the initial exploratory conversations and workshops where we were trying to isolate, identify, confirm and agree the key learning outcomes required from the disparate stakeholders and visions involved. This proved a complex issue to navigate on all sides.

Following further conversations between the collaborating partners around this, a novel suggestion was made to progress the collaboration and proved to be instrumental in doing so. This was the effective short-term secondment of a suitably qualified and experienced University PG student to one of the client organisations. This enabled an in depth and invaluable insight into the internal machinations and varied requirements of the key organisation, and ultimately led to the effective identification of initial requirements for the launch event. I realise this may not be possible in all CPD opportunities for universities but for a project such as this it proved to be key to success.

The Roots: A Pilot CPD Workshop

Newcastle University hosted a pilot CPD workshop in October 2022 to explore how cutting-edge research can be implemented to reduce the risks from extreme weather. The workshop provided a unique opportunity to bring together technical experts, researchers and experienced industry practitioners. There were lectures from subject matter experts and academics, whilst practitioners were given an opportunity to ask questions and share the challenges they face.

The robust discussions that took place really impressed me. They prompted a flurry of ideas and opportunities to utilise academic methods in response to current and active real-world problems.

The week-long pilot Weather Academy cohort brought together rail operations staff, asset engineers and meteorology experts to explore how we run a safer, more reliable service during adverse and extreme weather. The workshop provided an opportunity to work through practical case studies, interactive tuition, and scenario-based exercises to challenge and tangibly improve how we keep passengers moving.

Even as a stand-alone CPD event, this workshop effectively demonstrated active collaboration between Newcastle University, Network Rail, the Met Office and MetDesk Ltd. All speakers brought the content to life and supported attendees to improve knowledge and skills that they can immediately apply back in the 'real world'.

What did the participants think?

Complementary and supportive comments were subsequently made from all participating organisations. For example, Hayley Fowler, Professor of Climate Change Impacts at the School of Engineering, said:

“We are delighted to launch the Weather Academy here at Newcastle University. This partnership between Newcastle University, Network Rail and the UK Met Office provides an opportunity to improve Network Rail and the wider transport industry’s ability to deal with extreme weather events, producing safer and more resilient railway.”

PhD researcher, Tess O’Hara, added:

“The climate is changing. Extreme weather events including strong winds (as seen during Storm Arwen in 2021), flash flooding (for example, the Toon Monsoon in 2012) and the record-breaking temperatures experienced this year are forecast to become the new normal. Experts from Newcastle University are working with industry to help reduce the risk to life from extreme weather.”

Dame Julia Slingo, lead author of the Weather Advisory Task Force report, said:

“This is a landmark event. This is the first time, in the transport sector at least, that we got people together to think about how you manage the considerable risks to operations that you face from adverse weather and related hazards.”

Participants also talked about how the event illuminated new and existing areas of knowledge for the group. Matthew Shelton, Network Rail Asset Engineer said:

“I found the workshop illuminating, fascinating and extremely useful. The level of information provided enhanced my knowledge and broadened my understanding of several critical areas of the business.  I will be a more effective, more aware and more empathic risk manager as a result.”

As extreme weather events pose a risk across the transport sector, the Weather Academy therefore planned ongoing development from the outset with the hope that this innovative way of relating research to needs can be adopted more widely.

The Shoots: Success and Project Expansion

There is now a follow-up workshop in discussion for July 2023, and a plan to expand the programme by developing online learning tools for Network Rail’s in-house learning and development platform.

From the Newcastle University perspective, we are also exploring and broadening out this initiative by holding an event in June 2023 with other potential organisations and stakeholders in transport and infrastructure to inform them of this initiative and its success in order to establish whether there is any wider interest in working together on a similar approach. This will cover the different teaching modalities (such as CPD/Lifelong learning, bespoke courses, BSc/MSc, and apprenticeships), research, and will include a workshop on accurate weather data collection.

Personal Reflections

Personally, I believe there were two key actions that made the Weather Academy such an effective and successful CPD project.

Firstly, what really helped was the vocal support and encouragement of my immediate line manager in those initial discussions (to which I was not originally party) to the effect that the initial focus and lead in the conversations should be around CPD. To have such an influential voice at the inception stages of such projects is crucial I believe in ensuring the inclusion, importance and consideration of CPD in such work.

Secondly, our Marketing team were involved in publicising the successful outcomes from the event to a wider audience. This significantly raised the profile and importance of the work completed across all parts of the organisations involved.

And more importantly, like a lot of other unsung CPD interventions, from this initial CPD engagement, there are now a number of follow-up activities and projects being developed, which will lead to wider cooperation and development across the industries and organisations involved.

Some good shoots to be going on with from those initial CPD roots, I think.

Barry Walsh is Manager of the Centre for Professional & Executive Development at Newcastle University.