A British sports star joined a panel of experts for the final day of presentations by this summer’s Sprint cohort. Netball Gold Medallist, Eboni Beckford Chambers, joined the University’s own Dr Florin Bissett, Molly Southwood and Rachel Wood to provide their professional expertise, personal experience and feedback to the presenting students.
The presentations marked the end of a 3 day development programme called Sprint, delivered by the Careers Service, encouraging the professional development of female undergraduates. Covering key topics such as understanding your values, confidence, managing conflict, and influencing people, the programme aims to further equip the students with the self-awareness and key skills to be successful in the workplace.
Students from all degree disciplines and year groups came together to undertake the programme, first having to complete and application process describing why they wanted to take part and what they were hoping to gain from it.
The presentations delivered described the students’ personal experiences; their reasons for applying to Sprint, and how they hope to apply what they have learned. Most spoke of how inspired they have been by the course content and, in particular, the guest speakers who contributed to the programme. These included successful businesswomen from Lloyds Banking Group, PwC and the University. Our own Careers Adviser, Saiyada Fazal, was described by one group as ‘the most inspirational person I have ever met’.
From beginning the course as relative strangers, the friendship and respect cultivated amongst the groups was clear to see, and the judges were wowed by the confident delivery of the presentations and the stories of the students’ journeys. The panel were then able to reciprocate by sharing their own professional journeys with the group.
‘It’s been a pleasure to work with such a motivated group of young women. I have no doubt they all have very successful careers ahead of them.’ Melanie Wortham, Careers Adviser and Sprint Facilitator
For more information on Sprint visit: http://www.springboardconsultancy.com/product/sprint-professional-development-programme-for-women/ The university Careers Service hopes to run the programme again next year.
Guest speakers:
Eboni Beckford-Chambers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eboni_Beckford-Chambers
Dr Florin Bissett - Deputy Director Student Recruitment & Admissions
Molly Southwood – Deputy Director of Development & Alumni Relations, University of Bath
Rachel Wood – Head of Skills Centre, University of Bath
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