Public sector strikes and heatwaves aside we have rescheduled the roundtable discussion for industry participants to Monday 18 July. Two sessions are scheduled for 13:00 and 15:30

There are still spaces left in the 15:30 session.

We are running two groups and are looking to hear your thoughts on leadership, the kinds of skills and insights you would like to see new graduates coming to you with and seeing demonstrated in assessment centres. We also want to capture insights into perspectives on leadership and success from a diversity perspective to so we can use this to help shape the development of resources we will include in a workshop for engineering academics.

The feedback for the open day held at Microsoft Campus Reading showed what a great time the students had. The students really valued the chance to meet and talk to employees without the pressure of being there for an interview. Presentations from grad scheme entrants and students showed the variety of roles available. The HR team set up an assessment centre role play exercise with students playing assessor and assessed. Helen Duguid, the leadership coach working with Set to Lead, helped the students interview senior manager, Andrew Oliva-Hauxwell about his journey into leadership.

At one feeble answer from Andrew, Helen asked the interrogator if she was happy with the reply and she replied, “no, not really”. So Helen urged her to have another go until she got an answer that satisfied her!

The day was action packed with plenty of time for networking and chat –  lunch was flooded with Microsoft employees to ensure that everyone got the chance to ask questions about being interviewed, how to choose a job and make general enquiries about what it’s like working in IT.

The video material of the project will be edited over the summer and we look forward to sharing it with you soon!

We are still looking for hosts for teh next two open days so do get in touch if you would like to learn more!

Set to Lead is underway. The Microsoft open day is fast approaching and is full, with some places becoming available daily as we get cancellations – so do make sure you sign onto the waiting list.

The first round-table discussions are also set in place for 28 and 30 June. 28 June is a call for academics involved in developing and or delivering leadership and team skills to STEM undergraduates and the 30 June is a call for STEM employers: technical recruitment managers, HR and talent managers as well as leadership specialists to join us to look at current leadership models, resources, training and visionaries to help inform the development of a workshop for STEM academics and undergraduates. Interested? do get in touch or sign up on the registration page.