The Annual Global Officers Leadership Development (GOLD) Conference will be held on Thursday 23rd February, offering Global Officers and students an opportunity to develop and reflect upon their leadership and global citizenship skills. Effective leadership requires self reflection and an awareness of how to identify – and challenge – personal biases.
The Conference will begin with refreshments, followed by a talk given by Dr Anthony Manning, Director & Dean of Global and Lifelong Learning at University of Kent, who will introduce the conference’s theme of Leadership in a Global Context. Dr Manning is responsible for the development, implementation and review of international and lifelong learning at Kent, which includes the international student experience.
This will be followed by a workshop where participants from the GOLD Programme, alongside other students, will work with Loan, a student ambassador from UKCISA (UK Council for International Student Affairs). As an international student, she knows how studying in the UK can be both challenging and rewarding. She joined UKCISA to help other international students have the best experience, as well as to contribute to policy-making decisions that will effect real change in the world. In the workshop, participants will work with Loan to develop ideas on how to implement the UKCISA #WeAreInternational Student Charter to effect change at University of Kent and in the wider world.
Conference-goers will benefit from a Networking Lunch where they will get to sharpen their communication skills, exchange ideas, explore collaborative opportunities, build confidence and get noticed.
The afternoon’s programme includes a workshop with Iona Murdoch, Policy Officer at UKCISA on ‘Changing the lens through which we view the world’. Working with international student policy and student experience, Iona supports UKCISA members through her work on graduate employability, student wellbeing, and the cost of living. She is a trained facilitator, delivering workshops to students and young people on topics relating to intercultural dialogue and wellbeing.
This will be followed by a Leadership Insight talk and Q&A with Duncan McCombe, Partnerships Manager at Common Purpose, a not-for-profit organisation delivering global leadership programmes. Having worked in the education sector for nearly 10 years, Duncan is passionate about changing the way we do careers advice in the UK. At 18, he founded a social enterprise, Network Young, which helped young people to develop high quality professional networks that helped them to make informed career choices. He is now responsible for managing partnerships with UK universities, delivering programmes for over 8,000 students each year.
The conference will conclude with a talk by Seb Cadinot, Head of International Programmes at University of Kent and students taking the credit-bearing Global Officers Leadership Development module, GOLD5000.
Watch this space for a fuller report on the Conference and how participants found the experience!