Last Friday, I hosted the Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) launch event at DVLA’s headquarters in Swansea. It was a great success, with over 120 staff from across Department for Transport (DfT) joining me for the occasion.
Head of Profession
As Head of Profession for ODP within DfT, I was honoured and proud to host this launch event. In my opening address I explained why it is so important for people to take opportunities that are presented to them and to be proud to be involved in the profession.
Within DfT we have 10,000 people who are part of the profession. Looking across the Civil Service as a whole, ODP is the biggest profession of all with over 230,000 people involved. There are so many different roles under the ODP umbrella. I was keen to put across how everyone in the room should recognise the importance of what they do. They are part of a respected profession, just like a teacher or an accountant, for example.
The inspirational Simon Wheatcroft
Our keynote speaker for the day was ultra-marathon runner Simon Wheatcroft. Extreme running is difficult anyway, but imagine doing it if you were blind? That’s what Simon does!
His speech was truly inspirational, with a clear message running right through it about how important it is to show resilience, determination and grit. These are qualities ODP professionals already show in their work.
Living the values
We ran several breakout sessions at the event to discuss how those of us involved in ODP live the Civil Service values every single day.
These sessions gave our delegates a chance to have their say on what they think makes a brilliant operational delivery profession, and to share their ideas and experiences.
It was great to see everyone coming together like this, from such a diverse range of roles and experiences, learning from each other.
Celebrating ODP
After such a successful launch event, I firmly believe that it gives us all a platform to go back into our day jobs to both celebrate the profession and raise the profile of ODP across DfT.
I know from my own personal experience that it provides a fantastic opportunity for personal development and is a great community to be a part of.
If you are part of the profession and would like to find out more, search for ODP on Civil Service Learning or #ProudToBeODP and follow @OpsDelProf on social media.
If you’re interested in a career in Operational Delivery at DVLA then don’t forget to check out Civil Service Jobs for the latest opportunities.
Follow DVLA on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and subscribe to DVLA digital services blog.
Follow this news feed: DVLA