Essential Training
How We Work at Essex (HWWAE) is our core essential training designed to help everyone understand the fundamental basics when working at our University, so we can all play our part and work respectfully, responsibly and safely together. Colleagues are also asked to complete an annual HWWAE Booster to ensure that they stay up to date with essential information and key changes across the University and there is additional training for specific roles.
The overall Essential Training package helps each of us to ensure we are aware and capable of meeting our statutory obligations, and professional standards, and are fully supported to deliver the University’s Strategic Plan.
We also have an Essential Training Policy (.pdf). This has been created to ensure transparency in the expectations the University holds for the completion of essential training and signals an ongoing commitment to engage with professional development and continuous learning opportunities.
Who is required to complete Essential Training
All employees are required to complete Essential Training, including on-demand workers. The Essential Training requirements for different roles are summarised below, with a time estimate need to complete the training.
How We Work at Essex Essential Training package
- How We Work at Essex (M) [180 mins]. This should be completed by everyone as the first point of call to give you the fundamentals of How We Work at Essex (HWWAE) and what is expected of us.
- How We Work at Essex Booster (M) [60 mins]. This will be created every academic year to keep colleagues aware of important changes including those related to policy and law.
Your My Essential Training Dashboard will outline your Essential Training requirements.
Completion deadline
How we work at Essex Essential Training takes priority over all other training and must be completed within the first three months of you starting at the University. It will be checked as part of confirming the completion of induction by the reporting manager.
If you have already completed How we work at Essex this academic year, you will not need to complete the HWWAE Booster this year. The deadline for this Essential Training year is 29 September 2023.
You will receive a termly email update that will highlight which course is required for you. You can get in touch with us at develop@essex.ac.uk if you have any questions about this.
Role specific essential training
Across the University, there are many roles which have essential job role training which must be undertaken. You can view the different role-specific Essential Training below. If you have any questions, email develop@essex.ac.uk.
Managers
- Coaching Essentials for Managers [120 mins] Online version *
- Managing Diversity Essentials [120 mins]
- Managing Health and Safety Essentials [120 mins]
- Recruitment and Selection Essentials [75 mins]
*Note - If you have attended the Coaching Essentials for Managers workshop in person, you will not be required to complete the Moodle resource also or vice versa – you only need to complete one version of the essential training as long as it has been completed.
Supervisors
Staff in Supervisory roles are required to complete a Supervising PGR Students Confidence Tool as a part of their role-based training.
Personal Tutors
Staff in a Personal Tutor role will be required to complete a Personal Tutor Confidence Tool as a part of their role-based training.
Student-facing staff
Across the University, there are many roles which have essential job role training which must be undertaken.
Student code of conduct training should be undertaken by those who are specialist support staff who may be required to respond to reports of sexual violence, harassment and hate crime and those involved with implementing the Code of Student Conduct. Find out more about essential and desirable training. Workshops can be booked via HR Organiser and videos are can be viewed on Moodle
New education and research staff
For new members of staff working in education or research roles (including Assistant Lecturers and Graduate Laboratory Assistants) attendance to central inductions are required. These induction programmes provide key institutional information and signposts the support available to them and their students. The induction events can be found through searching the learning event catalogue
Internal and External University Committee members
So that decisions made at University committees uphold our commitment to transparency, natural justice in the workplace, and the avoidance of bias, all members of Council, University Steering Group, Audit and Risk Management Committee and Safeguarding Advisory Group are required to complete:
- External members of council are required to complete How we work at EssexAutomatic Bias training
- Internal members of council are required to complete How we work at Essex and Health and Safety Leadership training (F2F, arranged on request by emailing safety@essex.ac.uk
All members of Council, University Steering Group, Audit and Risk Management Committee and Safeguarding Advisory Group are required to complete Prevent Duty in Higher Education Training which can be accessed on Moodle or by emailing governance@essex.ac.uk
Essential Training for managers
- Coaching Essentials for Managers [120 mins] [Online version]
- Managing Diversity Essentials (M) [120 mins]
- Managing Health and Safety Essentials (M) [120 mins]
- Recruitment and Selection Essentials (M) [75 mins]
Committee members
So that decisions made at University committees uphold our commitment to transparency, natural justice in the workplace, and the avoidance of bias, all members of Council, University Steering Group, Audit and Risk Management Committee and Safeguarding Advisory Group are required to complete:
- External members of council are required to complete “How we work at Essex” and Automatic Bias training
- Internal members of council are required to complete "How we work at Essex" and Health and Safety Leadership training (F2F, arranged on request by emailing safety@essex.ac.uk)
All members of Council, University Steering Group, Audit and Risk Management Committee and Safeguarding Advisory Group are required to complete Prevent Duty in Higher Education Training which can be accessed on Moodle or by emailing governance@essex.ac.uk
Student code of conduct Essential Training
Across the University, there are many roles which have essential job role training which must be undertaken.
Student code of conduct training should be undertaken by those who are involved in Code of Student Conduct or specialist support staff who may be required to respond to reports of sexual violence, harassment and hate crime; signposting to support available within the University and externally.
Find out more about essential and desirable training.
Workshops can be booked via HR Organiser and videos are can be viewed on Moodle.
Curriculum update
Curriculum Update is the University of Essex system and process for updating the existing curriculum (course structures, modules, and option groups). Click here for more information, FAQs and to undertake the training: Curriculum Update Process course.
Further information and support about the Essential Training
How to access the training
Enrolling onto Moodle
You can click on the links provided in the email or find all Essential Training on the staff directory or Welcome to Essex Moodle resource. Just click the blue enroll button to enroll as a student for the course.
Completing the training
It is recommended that you complete your Essential Training on a PC, Laptop or Mac however it is also possible to complete the training using a phone or tablet.
How long the training takes
How We Work at Essex
How We Work at Essex will take approximately 3 hours to complete. You do not need to complete the training in one sitting. You may find it easier to complete the training one character at a time (approximately 1 hour per character). Moodle will save and record your progress.
Booster
The booster will take approximately 1 hour to complete. You do not need to complete the training in one sitting. The course will save and record your progress.
Deadlines
You need to complete either How We Work at Essex or the Annual Booster by 30 September, unless you are a new starter. New starters need to complete How We Work at Essex within their first three months of employment, although we would encourage you to put time aside in the first week to complete the module, as it includes lots of useful information about working at Essex.
About the Booster
In the first part of the Booster (the knowledge checker), you will refresh your knowledge on the content covered in How We Work at Essex. Information is provided to refresh your knowledge and find out more should you need it. The knowledge checker has been split into three sections:
- Keeping Safe and Well on Campus
- Information Security, Financial Regulations and Governance
- Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Safeguarding
In the second part of the Booster (Sam’s Day), you will be introduced to new content which highlights any key areas or changes in essential training. This year includes information on:
- Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech within the Law
- Avoiding Publishing Defamatory Materials
- Duty of Care
- Promoting Race Equality
- Promoting Gender Equality
- Climate and Ecological Emergency
How your training is recorded
Your dashboard
You will have access to your dashboard which you can access at any time. Please allow a full 24 hours for the dashboards to update and show the completion of recently completed courses.
If you believe your dashboard is incorrect and you have evidence of completion please send this to Commercial Applications at caquery@essex.ac.uk to update your records. If you do not have evidence we recommend you check your completion by logging into Moodle to view your progress and ensure that you have completed all quizzes, sections and downloaded any relevant certificates. If there is still a discrepancy, just get in touch at develop@essex.ac.uk
HR Organiser
HR Organiser does not update completed training immediately. This will be done overnight. If your training has not updated by the next day please contact develop@essex.ac.uk and we will look into this for you
Information for managers
Your information will replicate the information on ITrent – so we recommend that you firstly, check that the information is the same as you see on people manager. If that is not the case get in touch at develop@essex.ac.uk
Managers can see essential training completion records for their direct reports, and Heads of Department and Heads of Section are able to see completion rates for their whole team on their respective dashboards.
Other reports
We also run reports on training completion for assurance purposes, and these are reported to the University Steering Group and Council at least annually. Reporting on How We Work At Essex and Annual Booster completion rates is an important way for us to demonstrate that we are legally compliant, communicate our policies to all staff, as well as promote our values and how we expect people to work together.
