So our Apprenticeships Exemplar is now in public Beta and motoring ahead in delivering that great experience we promised our users during user research.
Take a peek at gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship
This exemplar is at the vanguard of a new generation of digital services. I’m very proud of it, and the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) we have achieved in the first few weeks of its operation have exceeded all of our expectations. It certainly feels good to start delivering our digital by default strategy and benefit from the results.
The Apprenticeships service is now being refined and optimised in line with real usage and further user research, and we plan to be fully live at the beginning of March; at which point we will decommission the legacy services in this area.
We were delighted to get through our public Beta GDS assessment with a minimum of conditions. I attended the assessment panel in Aviation House, and it was great to see how enthusiastic everyone was about the work we were doing – both assessors and those being assessed!
A huge thanks to our GDS transformation team and colleagues from the Ministry of Justice who helped us with our preparation and assurance.
I look forward to deploying the assessment process across all of our digital service activities.
Farewell to Clare
It is with regret that I say goodbye to Clare McKitrick this week.
Clare has been the GDS transformation manager at the Skills Funding Agency for over a year now, and has done a fantastic job in helping me drive both the delivery of our Exemplar, and our wider digital and agile transformation.
Clare has been utterly relentless in her drive and determination to help us transform our digital and agile service delivery at the Agency. Her single-minded focus on what good looks like, was exactly what I needed as CDO when faced with the challenge of transforming our delivery capability in the difficult and unusual circumstances of rightsizing and restructuring.
Although she continuously challenged me to go faster and be bolder, there was nothing she wouldn’t do to get me advice, resources and support if we thought we needed it.
So Clare, you inspired, frustrated, challenged, helped and exhausted us to varying degrees during your time here; but you never lost your sense of purpose.
A heartfelt thanks from all at the Skills Funding Agency and best of luck with your next assignment.
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