(Extract from RBL Membership Training Policy October 2023) The following courses are considered to be essential learning:

• Branch Treasurers must attend the Treasurer course within three months of taking up the role.
• Branch Chairman must attend the Branch Management course within three months of taking up the role.
• Branch Secretaries should attend the Branch Management course but within three months of taking up the role they must complete the Data Protection module of it, available as standalone training on the Training Portal (see below). 

The County Training Officer (CTO) is Steve Thatcher who is available via Northamptonshire.CTO@rbl.community

All Branch Officers and Committee members should attend training sessions commensurate to their role in the branch.  A useful guide to Branch (and County) Roles including the relevant Terms of Reference is:

Branch (and County) Role Descriptions (March 2024)

Training Delivery

The content and delivery of branch-level training is still under review by the RBL Learning & Development (L&D) Team. However, a number of courses are now available for booking by members - please see Courses Currently Available below.

The new training portal called Discover has now been made available to all members and all training (with the exception of Standard Bearers) has to be booked using this system.

If branches have members who do not have access to IT facilities and they can't be provided at branch level, then please notify the CTO.

Using Discover

Members create a personal training account on Discover where they select their County and/or branch positions (i.e. Chair, Secretary, Treasurer etc).  The system will then automatically provide access to the courses relevant to their role.  Once their registration has been confirmed, members can then start to book training. 

It should be noted that training can be on-line (individual done at your own pace), face-to-face (delivered by RBL L&D Team or CTOs in a suitable location) or as a webinar (where you join on-line as a group with other members) or a combination of some or all of these - this is explained in each Course Prospectus (below).

A guide to registering on the Discover portal is available HERE. Any issues with registration should be notified to L&D@britishlegion.org.uk

Courses Currently Available

The following prospectus provides details of course content and other requirements which members should read before registering and booking:

BCS Refresher

BCS New Supporter (please see County briefing note link below)

Branch Management

Branch Treasurer

LOMAS

Branch Recruiting Advisor

For a summary of the courses and their content, this guide is available:

Membership Course Offering (April 2024)

BCS Registration and Training

A briefing note on the procedures to be followed for branch registration and training for new starters is available via the following LINK.  For those interested in delivering BCS work, the following guide is available:

BCS Flyer

MAP & Microsoft 365 Training

Branch officers who have been provided with an rbl.community login and who are competent IT users may wish to use a series of self-teach resources which are available below instead of attending MAP and Microsoft 365 training:

MAP Quick Starter Guide

Microsoft 365 and Folders

Downloading a File from MAP

Support for RBL website design and maintenance (using Umbraco) is provided by a series of YouTube videos via this link.  If required, further support and advice can be be requested by email to Northamptonshire.CTO@rbl.community 

Recruitment

The County Chair & Recruitment Officer (CRO) normally carries packs of 10 of each leaflets and some BCS cards when he visits branches.

Any branches which are not due to visit and in need of stock can contact the CRO via the County Chair email (below) or by phone at the number given in every County Newsletter and supplies will either be posted or dropped off.

Branch-centred posters can be prepared for any branch on request; so far these have been made for Northampton, Thrapston & District and Warmington. The localities covered by the branch is normally included on the poster.

The point for us all to remember is that we are all recruitment officers not just the person with the title

CONTACT: Northamptonshire.Chairman@rbl.community for recruitment queries.

Locally delivered training for Branch Recruiting Advisors will commence shortly.

Standard Bearer Training

All Standard Bearer training will be delivered by the County Parade Marshal (CPM), Nick Fall.  Dates of training are published in the County Newsletter.

All Branch Standard Bearers are required to attend at last one training session each year, plus any other specific event related training session.  Furthermore, all Standard Bearers are required to undertake a Risk Assessment (as mandated by the RBL Ceremonial Working Group) on an annual basis as arranged by the CPM.

All queries should be made via Northamptonshire.ParadeMarshal@rbl.community