College leadership programme celebrates success of debut cohort

COLEG CAMBRIA is developing and supporting future managers and leaders to help the institution evolve and grow for years to come.

The college’s Aspiring Leaders programme was launched in September, designed to promote succession planning, encourage passionate, proactive, and motivated staff, and build even stronger working relationships between employees across the college’s sites in Wrexham, Deeside, Northop and Llysfasi.

The 13-strong debut cohort completed a series of ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) modules as part of the process on themes including Mentoring and Coaching, and Developing Yourself and Others.

Congratulating them on the achievement, Chief Executive Yana Williams said: “The key aim is developing our workforce and importantly focusing on who wants to be a manager, what area they want to work in and how we can help them to get where they want to be.

“Some people are happy in what they’re doing and suited to their role, some want to grow professionally and lead others, so as an education provider it’s vital we look to encourage and invest in our staff.

“Ultimately we want them to be the best they can be, which will have a positive knock-on effect for our students and the community.”

She added: “The programme will run every year and play a big part in our succession planning by creating a pool of future leaders.

“We’ve already seen more of a connect between our sites, and managers contacting each other if they have an issue, to share best practice and offer guidance and support, which can only improve communication.

“All of this will play a big part in the future of Coleg Cambria, which is very exciting – we look forward to welcoming further groups in the years ahead.”

Among those to graduate from the inaugural Aspiring Leaders programme were Technical Training Officer Matt Kinnear, based at Airbus, Broughton, and Sarah Grundy, a Work-Based Learning Practitioner and NVQ Assessor in Deeside.

Matt said: “This course complements my industry experience and the technical qualifications I’ve gained; I was looking for something else to build on that momentum in business and management, so this has been fantastic as it was directly linked to the college’s systems and processes.

“It’s added structure to my project work and been a great chance to network and meet people from many different areas of the organisation, exploring where there are shared challenges and solutions.”

Sarah, who has been with Cambria for 15 years, added: “I enrolled as I want to take the next step in my career and it was the ideal opportunity to learn more about leadership and management in education and the public sector.

“The coaches and mentors brought a lot to it as they all had different styles and varying backgrounds, so it was a valuable and enjoyable experience.”