Lifeways’ designer of support team training materials shortlisted for the Great British Care Awards!

Zoé Hji-Christoforou, the designer of support team training materials for our 11,000 colleagues across the country, has been shortlisted for the Great British Care Awards!

Although many Lifeways staff members will not have heard of Zoé – until now – her work to develop and create first-rate training courses has been felt across our entire organisation.

Zoé is a Learning Design Assistant in Lifeways’ Learning and Development team. She started her career as a paramedic in 2017 before moving on to deliver health-based training within primary care, the independent sector, and then the NHS.

In 2021, Zoé moved to Lifeways to design our training courses for My Lifeways Learning (MLL), our in-house digital Learning and Development platform. (On a side note, My Lifeways Learning has played a big role towards the Learning and Development team being nominated as finalists at the LaingBuisson’s Excellence in Training for 2023 award.)

Zoé’s wide range of experience makes her that rare combination: she has a deep understanding of health and care, coupled with practical design skills.

On 11 November, in a ceremony held at Manchester’s Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, Zoé will find out whether she has won the Workforce Development Award. This category is one of 23 in the Great British Care Awards.

How does Zoé design the courses?

“I enjoy my job and I think it shows!” Zoé says.

“I’m passionate about creating good training that is going to help our frontline staff to do their jobs and provide the best level of social care to the people we support.”

Over the past year, Zoé has designed and revamped the following courses, adding visual elements such as infographics to aid learning:

• Diabetes awareness

• Right support, right care, right culture

• Open and transparent cultures

• Dietary requirements

• Personalisation terminology

• Registered Manager training courses

• Updated various Health & Safety courses, such food hygiene, fire safety, and evacuation sheets

• How to spot signs that someone is unwell.

In-house expertise

As well as using her own knowledge base, Zoé works closely with Lifeways’ in-house Subject Matter Experts to create the courses.

“For me, learning design is the challenge of merging the very important knowledge of our Subject Matter Experts who provide the content for our courses with the needs of our learners and making it look good whilst doing so!” Zoé adds.

Zoé’s aim is present training information in a way that is easy to understand, accessible and engaging so that learners understand, retain, and remember the content covered.

“Designing training information is not easy given the volume of information that the learners need to know,” she says. “There’s also the detail that needs to be included - but I think having a background in both healthcare and training helps.”

Zoé is looking forward to the awards ceremony.

“To be recognised individually is a great honour - and a really nice acknowledgement of the work that I’ve done and continue to do as part of my role here at Lifeways.”

Fingers crossed for 11 November!

 

About Lifeways:

Lifeways is the UK’s largest team of support professionals providing support for adults in the community.

As the supported living sector’s largest team of professionals, Lifeways’ extensive experience and national reach mean we deliver extraordinary support to adults, enabling them to live fulfilling and independent lives in the community. 

Our 11,000 colleagues currently support close to 4,500 individuals who live in our 1,500 supported living and residential services across England, Scotland, and Wales. 

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