A new year, a new you? Springboard Women's Development Programme

Friday, 04 January 2013

The Springboard Women's Development Programme enables women to take more control over their own lives by identifying clear, practical and realistic steps that they want to take and developing the skills and confidence to take them. Springboard has been used successfully by over 180,000 women world wide.

Springboard is for women of all backgrounds, ages and stages of their life and combines the attendance of four full day workshops, completion of a workbook, networking and co-coaching. Each participant will set their objectives on the first workshop which can be to do with work or their personal life. 

Many women use the programme to get better results at work, such as new qualifications, aiming for a promotion, developing new skills or creating a new attitude to change. According to the Springboard Consultancy, 80% of participants report increased confidence/self-esteem as a result of undertaking this programme.

The University has decided to offer this programme as part of the Promoting Excellence Project and it is open to applications from all female staff. A total of 32 places are available, some of which will be dedicated to Postgraduate students.

If you are curious and want to find out more about the Springboard Women's Development Programme to enable you to decide if you wish to apply there are two briefing/taster sessions being run: 1pm to 2pm Friday 11 January or 1pm to 2pm Monday 14 January. You can book on either of these sessions via Employee Self Service Employee Self Service or by emailing cstd@reading.ac.uk specifying which date you would prefer to attend.

If you are already familiar with Springboard or already know that you would like to apply at this stage please email Claire Lenders in the Centre for Staff Training and Development (CSTD) (c.m.lenders@reading.ac.uk) and include the following:

• A confirmation that you will be able to commit to attending the four workshops which will run on the following dates: 8 February (Whiteknights), 5 March (London Road), 19 April (Whiteknights) and 10 May (London Road).
• A short statement explaining why you want to join the programme and what you hope to get out of it.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Thursday 31 January for all hoping to take part in the programme. 

As places are limited to 32, consideration of the applications to select the participants will take place on 4 February. CSTD are running the programme to assess its effectiveness for staff at the University they will, therefore, be looking to offer this opportunity to a wide variety of participants at different stages of their careers from all areas of the University.