Thank you for all the nominations and applications for the Southampton 2011 Researcher Talent Development programme: see http://www.soton.ac.uk/lateu/professional_development/ECR/researcher_talent_development.html Nominations and applications have now closed.
And apologies for the rushed timetable – this was partly so that we could secure the resources for 2011. From a short list of 41, we offered places to 19 Southampton Early Career Researchers, and asked them which dates for the Development Centre they would prefer. As a result the Development Centre is being held on 23rd. and 24th. February 20911 and all 19 have confirmed their places, and have received further details.
As part of the application process candidates were asked what the advantages to them would be if they attended and we have used the replies to modify the content of the Development Centre to deliver the more generic and leadership parts of what the participants wanted or anticipated.
We anticipate running a similar Southampton Researcher Talent Development programme in 2012 with a similar timetable, so if you might be interested please look out for details here and in your inbox around the start of December 2011
As an aside: in some correspondence some colleagues may not have fully grasped the difference between an “Assessment Centre” and a “Development Centre” – apologies for not making that clear. For future reference:
Assessment Centre:
Recruitment method;
External (and perhaps internal) candidates, and external and internal assessors;
Perhaps one full day or two days;
What can the candidate do now;
A battery of test and measures – including psychometrics;
Organisation owns the results;
Outcome and feedback is typically a rejection letter.
Development Centre:
Typically a couple of days, often away from the workplace;
Concentrating on longer term professional development;
Often using a psychometric tool or management development tools;
Often internal and external facilitators;
Usually a longitudinal group of internal staff (e.g. succession planning or talent management);
Focus on potential;
Provides feedback – confidential to the participant;
Outcome is typically an action plan.
