Courses and resources

What is a Development Centre and what are the benefits to individual Research Fellows?.

Development Centres measure capability (ability, intellectual style, motivation, experience, preference, interests) so that participants can see how they match key employment requirements, and also identify strengths, development needs and learning potential.

Participants undertake series of exercises and activities which can include interviews, psychometric tests, questionnaires and, for example, exercises designed to assess core competencies such as the ability to communicate, manage other people, analyse information and make decisions, perform under difficult circumstances and so forth.

The benefits for Research Fellows include:.

- A very detailed snapshot of capability, this can be used to target training or development activities and/or help participants prepare for job applications.

- Uncover latent potential.

- Individuals will be profiled against a framework of major job requirements in Higher Education and Industry, leading to a personalised development plan.

- Development Centres can provide structure to career planning and are a chance for all stakeholders to have an input into individual action plans and how these relate to work commitments.

The Development Centre approach is widely used throughout commercial and not-for-profit organisations as it provides a safe and objective way of identifying talent and of providing meaningful career development advice.

The one day Development Centre will be followed by a two hour (one-to-one) feedback session with a trained Observer to discuss the results from the Centre and create a personalised development plan.

It is expected that participants will share this development plan with their PI and relevant on and off the job training undertaken as a result.

This approach has the benefit of pin pointing strengths and development Who should attend: Research Job Family (ie Associate Research Fellow, Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow) any discipline.

Bookings are now being accepted for this event.

Please note a booking does not mean a place is allocated until you receive email confirmation.

This is due to the nature of funding and priority is given to research staff who are funded by Research Councils in part or in full.

Aims and Outcomes:

To provide the participant with a personalised report identifying strengths and areas for development which will be used to form a personal development plan.

Participant Comments: - 'Confirmation of my strengths - confirmation of areas I need to work on'.

- 'It's made me aware of the things I need to work on'.

- 'Made me realise I had strengths in areas I didn't realise before'.

Training Provider:

Staff Learning & Development (sld@exeter.ac.uk)