Springboard Women′s Development Programme
| Date | 01 May 1994 |
| Published date | 01 May 1994 |
| Pages | 21-23 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129410055460 |
| Author | Valerie Fawcett |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Library staff in different parts of the country have
been benefiting from Springboard Women’s
Development training. Springboard is a personal
development course for women which encourages
participants to analyse and assess themselves and
set personal goals. The course then helps them to
achieve them. In December 1993 Springboard
won its providers a National Training Award for
quality and excellence.
Springboard courses for library staff have been
held in Shropshire, London, East Sussex and
Birmingham and library staff have also taken part
in a number of other courses run by local
councils. The participants at the London course,
held at the Library Association, came from the
whole range of library and information service
settings, commerce, national, museum, university
college and public libraries.
What is a Springboard Course?
A Springboard course is held over three months.
It consists of four one-day workshops held at
four-weekly intervals and an open-learning
workbook on which participants need to spend
about three hours of their own time each week.
There are three other major elements of the
course:
●networking;
●role-model speakers;
●helpers.
Women are encouraged to network during the
course and in most cases, participants continue to
meet to support each other after the three months.
The role-model speakers on each workshop are
women working at a higher (though not
necessarily much higher) level than the
participants, who give a short talk about their own
careers, how they have overcome the difficulties
of balancing their personal and professional lives,
and any advice they would like to offer others as a
result of their own experiences.
These profile sessions bring the issues raised in
the rest of the programme to life, and often have a
considerable impact on the participants. Speakers
are frequently able to share experiences of:
●coping with career breaks;
●developing confidence;
●taking initiative;
●working for professional qualifications in their
own time and passing the exams against all
expectations;
●coping with negative events such as divorce or
redundancy, forcing a rethink of their lives.
Some organizations have opted to appoint helpers
from among more senior women, or where
appropriate, previous Springboard participants,
who are willing to make themselves available to
course members to discuss problems. In many
cases, this has proved a useful element in the
continuing professional development of senior
women.
The main ingredients of the programme are
very flexible and courses can be tailored to suit
individual organizations.
Each woman sets her own agenda for what she
wants to achieve on a Springboard course but the
topics covered include:
●analysing skills;
●setting goals;
●taking initiative;
●becoming more assertive;
●dealing with stress;
●seeking information;
●making things happen;
●turning ideas into actions;
●balancing home and work.
VOLUME 15 NUMBER 3
1994
21
Springboard Women’s
Development Programme
Valerie Fawcett
Library Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, 1994, pp. 21-23
© MCB University Press, 0143-5124
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