client case studies

The Case for Personal Development in Higher Education - continued

What Happened Next?

We asked Wilma, Hannah, Parul and Bernadette to tell us more about their experiences with The Springboard Consultancy.

At the University of Westminster Parul said:
“We considered it important to have internal staff licensed to deliver the programmes as personal development is considered a high priority at this university.”

Bernadette continued:
“I trained at Holwell to become licensed to run Springboard, Spring Forward and Fresh Steps programmes. The training was enjoyable, thorough, and left me confident to go back and deliver the programmes.”

When we asked Hannah what was involved in setting up the programme she replied:
“We used an external trainer for our first two programmes. We were so impressed with the courses and the results that subsequently seven of our staff have trained to become licensed to deliver the programmes.” She added, “My journey has really been quite special. I was a participant on the first programme, I then became a trainer and I now manage all the Springboard programmes here (we currently run two every year).”

She continued:
“One of my colleagues has recently trained and become licensed to deliver Navigator programmes for men. Assumptions are made about male staff but we believe that there are strong parallels between male and female staff. We saw it as essential to offer men the same opportunities as women.”

When we spoke with Wilma it transpired that her journeys with Navigator and Fresh Steps were quite different. Wilma said:
“We are part of a strong network of licensed trainers here in the North West so once we had decided to run Navigator, we immediately asked a local facilitator to come and deliver the programme. We advertised it internally and got a really good response from across the staff spectrum.”

Wilma’s experience with Fresh Steps was more personal. This is her story:
“I am the right age to attend Fresh Steps so that’s why I wanted to try a taster to see what the programme could offer us here in Lancashire. As a group we reflected on what we had achieved in our lives and the challenges we had faced. Sharing this with my peer group I realised how powerful it was to work with a cohort my age. I’ll be running my 6th programme this November and generally get an impressive mix of older staff including Academics, Support Staff, Researchers and Facilities Staff."

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