Industry talent managers, technical managers and leadership trainers from a variety of companies will come together to share ideas and insights at a roundtable kindly hosted at Roke Manor Research near Romsey, Hampshire from 2-4pm on 15 September. Discussion topics will cover:

You can find out more and register here

We are also looking for interviewees to talk about recruitment processes, assessment of candidates and good practice on giving male and female candidates equal opportunity to shine. Get in touch or leave a reply below

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 an exciting new HE STEM funded project led by UCL’s Engineering Faculty. The project will be collating and sharing insights into leadership skills, styles and success. This blog will be the main information portal advertising events with links to online registration, meeting details and progress on the project. We will be building up a resource for academics and students including leadership articles, links to resources and video clips of great leaders.

The project includes:

• Roundtables with academics and industry
• Research into the recruitment process and gender differences in success rates
• Four industry open days targeted at women students
• Creation of a resource on inspiring leaders and leadership

You can also follow us on Twitter as SETtoLead

This project is operating across the South East with partners Imperial, Surrey and Southampton Universities.

An industry open day has already taken place at Arup and a second is planned for 10 June at Microsoft Campus, Reading.