The pilot Women’s Leadership programme has been targeted at women across the University from both professional and academic staff and who has completed the University’s LASR (Leadership for Areas of Significant Responsibility) programme.
The purpose of this programme, is to deliver 4 high level workshops, each individually designed to complement and enhance the learning from the central LASR programme, whilst exploring new innovative leadership capabilities exclusively for women leaders at Kent, so they feel equipped, and empowered to challenge the current leadership gender imbalance.
The first workshop took place in January which included an external facilitator discussing Women’s Leadership: Perception vs Reality. Very positive feedback was received from the cohort including:
“Sharing views and experiences” “Chance to understand work on the issues faced by women outside the university, because it put our experience at Kent into perspective.” “I was heartened to see the amount of support and dedication for women’s leadership in the learning and development team. I thought the session with the external facilitator was very good in terms of addressing personal and emotional barriers to feeling confident at work.”
There will be a further 3, ½ day workshops running over a 5 month period, focusing on the themes of:
- Strategic Career Planning and Management
- Work life balance: The challenges and adjustments
- Leading through Change Creatively and Dynamically
In addition to the workshops, and in order to enhance feedback from each workshop, focus groups will take place shortly after each workshop over a lunchtime for about 1 hour.
The overall structure and content has been overseen by the Learning and Organisational Development team.
