Action Learning, Not Paper: A CIC Founder's Approach to Building Skills

I’ve been thinking a lot about skills. Not qualifications, not certificates, not CV-fodder — actual skills. The kind that mean you can do something at the end of a training programme, not just prove you sat through it.

Nick Temple talked about action learning at the CIC Forum, and it struck a chord. The idea is simple: instead of getting training and achieving a piece of paper, you get training and have a skill at the end of it. You can actually do the thing you were trained to do.

His recommendation was characteristically direct. Ring up a company and ask them to let you work for them for free for three months. Learn by doing. Build the skill in the real environment where it’s going to be used.

There are a million young people unemployed in this country right now. A million. They’re not just statistics — they’re the future of the social economy, and too many of them are being let down by a system that prioritises accreditation over capability.

CICs are in a unique position to change that. Because CICs are rooted in their communities, they can offer the kind of hands-on, practical learning that traditional training programmes struggle to deliver. A young person working in a CIC isn’t just learning a skill — they’re learning what it means to run a business with a social purpose, to serve a community, to be accountable for outcomes that go beyond the bottom line.

I’ve seen it happen. People who’ve come into CICs with no formal qualifications but with energy, creativity and a willingness to learn have become some of the most effective practitioners I know. They’ve built the skills they needed by doing the work, making mistakes, trying again. Action learning in its purest form.

This matters beyond the individual level. If the CIC movement is going to scale — if we’re going to see the kind of growth that takes us from 5,000 to 10,000 to 20,000 organisations — we need a pipeline of people who know how to run social businesses. Not just in theory, but in practice. Not just people who can write a funding bid, but people who can manage a budget, lead a team, negotiate a contract, and deliver a service.

The traditional training infrastructure isn’t going to produce those people fast enough. We need to build our own. Action learning, peer support, on-the-job training — the kinds of approaches that CICs are already using, often without realising it.

My advice to anyone starting a CIC, or thinking about it: find a way to learn by doing. Work alongside people who are already running social businesses. Make mistakes in an environment where mistakes are survivable. Build the skills you need through the work itself.

A piece of paper will tell people you sat through a course. A skill will tell them you can deliver.