Professional services learning and development
There are a wide range of development opportunities for professional services staff. These include workshops, e-learning and a range of resources for self-directed study.
Workshops and programmes
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Application forms
Statistically the hardest part of the recruitment process is the application form stage. This workshop will explain what makes a good Job Application including how to structure answers to questions and personal statements. There will be an interactive exercise looking at ‘good’ and ‘bad’ examples and plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
These sessions will be taking place via MS Teams.
Dates
Wednesday 22nd January 2025, 10am-11am (Online)
Tuesday 13th May 2025, 2pm-3pm (Online)
CVs and covering letters
CVs and Cover Letters still play a crucial part in the recruitment process. This workshop will help you to prepare these documents and using the FAB model, I will explain how to represent achievements succinctly and how to use transferable strengths to help you to progress in your career.
These sessions will be taking place via MS Teams.
Dates
Thursday 16th January 2025, 2pm-3pm (Online)
Tuesday 6th May 2025, 10am-11am (Online)
LinkedIn for job search
This workshop covers the basics of creating a LinkedIn profile and will explain how to perfect your profile so that recruiters will take notice. We will cover how to search for job opportunities and apply for vacancies using LinkedIn.
These sessions will be taking place via MS Teams.
Dates
Wednesday 5th February 2025, 2pm-3pm (Online)
Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 10am-11am (Online)
Interviews
This workshop will explain the psychology behind interviews, look at the various types of interviews including video and telephone interviews and explain the structure of typical interviews. Using the STAR framework, we will examine how to structure a ‘good answer. We will discuss typical questions and how to answer these, including strengths and competency based responses.
These sessions will be taking place via MS Teams.
Dates
This workshop will cover the role of the secretary in supporting committees, preparation of minutes, managing confidential material and adopting a paperless approach. The session will focus on the servicing of online meetings using Teams. It is suitable for any member of staff involved in servicing meetings.
Dates
There are currently no dates scheduled for this workshop. Please contact OD to register your interest.
To bring Professional Services colleagues together, a series of 'elevenses' have taken place over the last couple of years. Following the success of the last series, we will be running the elevenses again in the 24/25 academic year.
The elevenses aligns with the Lancaster University value of 'Building Strong Communities' and were occasions to celebrate, share practice, and take time out with others in a safe and empowering environment. They provided valuable connection points for colleagues throughout the year.
Each session has the same format, starting at 10.30am with a short, 15-minute input session. This will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion/Q&A and will culminate at 11am for informal networking over tea, coffee and Danish pastries.
All elevenses are to be held on campus and hosted by a member of the Professional Services Leadership Team.
This Elevenses series replaced the Professional Services Conference in 2022-23, providing multiple, regular ways to connect with each other on different days of the week.
Dates
- Human-Centred Design: Understanding and Addressing the Needs and Challenges of Product and Service Users: Thursday 31 October 2024, 10.30am-11.30am
- Future of Energy on Campus: Wednesday 11 December 2024, 10.30am-11.30 am
- Technicians Make it Happen: Thursday 30 January 2025, 10.30am-11.30am
- Introduction to the colleges: Tuesday 11 March 2025, 10.30 am-11.30 am.
- Showcasing the Data Immersion Suite: May 2025, exact date TVC. To register your interest please email OD.
Running alongside the Elevenses
Showcasing the Clinical Skills Labs - Wednesday 8th May 2024
This session will have a slightly different layout to the rest of the series. It will consist of an hour in the Clinical Skills Labs, where you will be able to ask questions throughout the interactive session. There will then be the opportunity for networking at 11.30am over tea, coffee and Danish pastries.
Overview
The MyPSCareer@Lancaster programme aims to develop and empower Professional Services staff to take control of and pro-actively manage their careers by focusing on the following areas:
- understanding individual strengths and values,
- building confidence and resilience
- and career management.
This programme is appropriate at all career stages whether you are ready for the next step, looking for a change in direction, returning to work after a career break, looking for ways to continue to grow and develop within your role and /or want to re-assess your lifestyle and work-life balance.
What's involved?
The programme incorporates half-day workshops, action learning and individual coaching over a 3 month period.
Action Learning is an approach to solving problems that involves taking action and reflecting upon the results, so helping to improve the problem-solving process. It requires a group of people (a set) who are supportive of one another to meet over a period of time to listen to, ask questions, take action and provide feedback with the objective of individual and shared personal and professional growth. For more details on Action learning please visit the Guide to Action Learning in Higher Education and a short video with Reg Revans.
Workshop dates
January 2025 Cohort
Workshop 1-Where am I now?: 15 January 2025 9.30am-4pm (Face to Face)
This workshop will help you build a clearer picture of your current situation. You will understand your priorities, explore your personality type, learn what skills, knowledge and personal qualities you possess and where your motivations and interests lie. This increased self-awareness will help you be more targeted when you explore options and ease any uncertainty you may have by helping you decide on your next steps.
Action Learning Set 1: 21 January 2025 You will allocated a 60 minute slot throughout the day (Face to Face)
Workshop 2 - Where do I want to go?: 12 February 2025 9.30am-12pm (Face to Face)
In this workshop you will explore the options open to you as you navigate your career. This will include researching internal and external opportunities as well as how you can make your existing career more fulfilling. You will hear from a range of speakers including recruitment experts and colleagues who have managed their careers in a variety of ways. You will learn how to develop your resilience so that you can thrive in your career. You will develop a career action plan, find out how to receive help and support and set goals to manage your own career. To complement the workshop, you will receive individual career coaching focused on your career aspirations.
1-2-1 Coaching: 12 and 13 February 2025 You will be allocated a 30 minute slot throughout the day (Online)
Action Learning Set 2: 19 March 2025. You will allocated a 60 minute slot throughout the day (Online)
Workshop 3-What should I do now?: 24 April 2025 9.30am -12pm (Face to Face)
In the final workshop you will decide on your next steps, learn about the recruitment process, update your CV and cover letter, learn how to complete a successful application and learn how to make the most of LinkedIn. To complement the workshop, you will receive individual career coaching focused on your career aspirations.
1-2-1 Coaching: 24th and 25 April 2025 You will be allocated a 30 minute slot throughout the day (Online)
Action Learning Set 3: 30 April 2025 You will be allocated a 60 minute slot throughout the day (Online)
Apply
Applications for this cohort are not currently open. To register your interest, please contact OD.
How do we organise events in this new and ever-changing climate? While a number of the key principles of events management remain in place, we have had to adapt our working practices to plan, deliver and evaluate successful online events.
Join Dr Anna Mackenzie, lead for the University’s central Events Team to discuss events management (for any size and all types of events, whether for academic or professional services purposes), share experiences, learn about new innovations to events at Lancaster, and above all hopefully gain some confidence! We will introduce you to the cross-University Events Network, signpost you to resources to support planning, and answer as many questions as possible. Bring your questions, musings and challenges to workshop with the group in a supportive environment and learn from each other.
Dates
Wednesday 29 January 2025, 1pm-4pm (In-Person)
Wednesday 14 May 2025, 1pm-4pm (In-Person)
There is an Events Network Teams site for advice and guidance and to post your questions on event management questions.
E-learning and resources
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Current staff at the University can access funded training and development in the form of an apprenticeship.
Apprenticeships exist in a wide range of occupations from level 2 (equivalent to GCSEs) to Degree and Master's level qualifications.
If you have discussed development and formal training during your PDR meetings with your manager, converting onto an apprenticeship may be the best way to obtain this training, which is free or heavily subsidised.
The apprenticeship must be relevant to your current role and must align with the skills, knowledge and behaviour required by the standards.
There is more information for managers and those wishing to take an apprenticeship on the apprenticeship intranet pages.
If an apprenticeship is the right route for you, your Manager will need to identify the matching standard to best fit the job role. Visit the Institute for Apprenticeships website to find the standards and a relevant training provider.
The training does require a significant time commitment over a minimum of a year including 20% off-the-job training, so staff and their managers need to consider this and commit to completion.
Off-the-job training can be anything from shadowing members of staff, to attending a college day. The purpose of off the job training is to provide a learning opportunity for the apprentice that is not directly linked to their day-to-day existing role. This allows the apprentice to gain new valuable skills, knowledge and experience which can further enhance skills and knowledge already being learned in their role. Training providers will already have plans on how to utilise a learner’s off-the-job training, so clarifying this first will help you understand how the apprenticeship will work for your department, and may be an influencing decider over which provider is chosen to ensure the apprenticeship aligns with your department's needs.
For further information on the process, please see Apprenticeship process - conversions.
Visit the Career Management microsite to take stock of where you are now in your career and help you to plan for the future.
Challenging situations can arise when dealing with our internal and external customers. To help deal with these it is important that the environment for customer interactions helps and supports staff to deal with these situations.
Organisational Development has put together a development package for staff and their managers to help deal with a challenging situation that may occur in-person, by email, telephone or virtually. The package includes:
- A - to ensure that the environment for customer interactions is supportive for staff
- A challenging situations online course which is recommended if you are staff interacting with our customers. This will help you develop techniques to deal with any challenging situation that may arise. The online course will take about 30 minutes and up to 90 minutes if you include the optional exercises. It includes some reflective exercises that could be followed up with your line manager/team at a later date.
The change and uncertainty toolkit aim to enable us to understand how we typically respond to change and uncertainty and offer some tools and techniques to develop our resilience.
For more information, please see Networks and Communities of Practice.
Diversity training e-learning course
All staff are required to complete Diversity Training within the first 3 months of employment. It takes approximately 40-60 minutes to complete. The training then needs to be repeated at least every 3 years. This will ensure that you learn about new legislation and refresh your awareness.
You will need to complete all sections of the training and the short test at the end of the module. This will ensure that this is recorded on your Core HR record.
Optional EDI e-learning courses
To make a fairer and more inclusive University a reality, we have a range of EDI-related e-learning for our staff, including guidance about University policies and procedures.
Find out more about our optional EDI e-learning courses, covering a variety of sector-specific EDI topics as well as related University policies, advice and guidance.
Creating accessible resources e-learning course
New legislation that came into force in September 2019 requires all our online content to be fully accessible.
The creating accessible resources online course will help you make sure that any materials you produce are up to the new accessibility standard.
Further support and advice for creating accessible content can be found by visiting the digital accessibility help pages.
Gender equality in Higher Education - resources, conferences and webinars
There are a wide range of resources to support gender equality in higher education from Advance HE
Health and safety e-learning course
All staff are required to complete this mandatory Health and safety training.
This course has been developed as an introduction to Health and Safety at Lancaster University. New staff need to complete the training within one week of starting employment at the university. The training then needs to be repeated at least every 3 years. You must complete all the sections of the training as they have been identified as the key areas of importance for all staff.
You will need to complete all sections of the training and the short test at the end of the module. This will ensure that this is recorded on your Core HR record.
Health and safety intranet pages
For more information on Health and Safety visit the Intranet pages which have been set up to support staff comply with the regulations.
LinkedIn Learning provides access to over 21,000 online learning courses, taught by industry experts. It is available to staff at Lancaster Bailrigg, Ghana and Leipzig campuses. LinkedIn courses support skills and personal development across a broad range of topics, particularly in the areas of technology, business and creative skills.
Courses vary in length from a few minutes to several hours and are broken down into bite-size video modules. There is no limit to the number of courses you can take, and you can pause a course at any point, picking up where you left off when you next login.
For information, please see LinkedIn Learning guidance.
Guidance for chairs and organisers of meetings
- this guide has been written for those chairing and scheduling meetings.
Guidance for those chairing and scheduling meetings is available on the managing committees community of practice Teams group, which also provides an opportunity to ask questions and find out about further support available.
As more staff are working on campus face-to-face meetings will become more common, but some staff may be unable to attend in-person. Guidance on hybrid meetings is available through following the below links:
Mental health awareness e-learning course
Mental health awareness training is available now. This training should be completed in the first 3 months of employment. It takes approximately 90 minutes to complete. The training then needs to be repeated at least every 3 years. This will ensure that you learn about new legislation and refresh your awareness. It is currently not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged for all staff.
Further information on mental health
Visit the staff wellbeing pages for information about how the University is helping to improve the mental health and wellbeing of its staff and about the range of professional support that is available to you.
A Professional Development Review (PDR) enables you to have a quality conversation with your line manager about your contribution, your priorities and your career goal.
Guidance and FAQs
For further information please visit the PDR website.
PDR e-learning
The PDR e-learning resource provides guidance on what the PDR is, how it can benefit you, what to expect and how to prepare for it.
Guidance to develop a personal development Plan
A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is a structured process to reflect on your learning and development needs and to plan how you can fill any learning gaps. Personal and Professional Development Planning is part of being a ‘reflective practitioner’ and should be part of regularly reviewing your professional knowledge and skills to ensure they are up-to-date and relevant.
For more information please read a .
e-learning Resources
A list of e-learning resources linked to the Association of University Administrators (AUA) Continued Development Framework is available.
Visit the staff wellbeing pages for information about how the University is helping to improve the mental health and wellbeing of its staff and about the range of professional support that is available to you.