Introducing the Trailblazer programme: Free CPD for Bristol Business School alumni

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Bristol Business School are offering our alumni a pioneering and exclusive complimentary professional development programme, relevant across disciplines, regardless of when you graduated.

Launching in September 2018, our Trailblazer Programme will blend face-to-face sessions with webinars and social events. You will be motivated to maximise personal impact, boost effectiveness and develop leadership skills.

Facilitated by experienced academics, seasoned practitioners, and inspirational speakers, this programme echoes the mantra of learning by doing what is integral to our Bristol Business School and Bristol Law School.

Who is it for?

Offered exclusively to UWE Bristol alumni on a complimentary basis, this is a chance to continue the learning that you began when you were a student. The programme enables you to take advantage of your lifelong connection to our expertise and community.

Entry requirements

There are no formal entry requirements for this programme, however places will be offered exclusively to UWE Bristol alumni from our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Content

The programme incorporates four face-to-face sessions alongside online learning through webinars and two social events per a cohort.

Session 1 – Leading Self for Personal Effectiveness: Learn how to adapt your behaviour and actions when dealing with different individuals, tasks and situations. Acquire the skills to deliver exceptional performance, authentically.

Session 2 – Leading Others for Impact: Practical tips on creating high performing teams focusing on; healthy team dynamics, influencing and communicating.

Session 3 – Coaching and Mentoring: Transform your personal management style in this practical session by developing your coaching and mentoring skills to enhance performance and encourage self-exploration.

Session 4 – Design Thinking: Experience the creative process of finding new and transformative solutions to problems whilst also generating innovative ideas and opportunities.

Webinars: Webinar topics will be decided at the start of the programme to ensure these are relevant to the current business environment.They will be available live or pre-recorded.

Graduation: Graduation event for the year’s cohorts.

Professional accreditation

We are seeking to get this programme approved by the CPD Certification Service, meaning you will receive a certificate to demonstrate your CPD hours through completion of this programme*.

The growing network of participants will benefit from lasting relationships with likeminded professionals.

*subject to approval being granted.

Places for the course are limited to 40 participants per cohort. For more information and to apply for your free place, please see here.

 

Honorary degree awarded to Kalpna Woolf

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UWE Bristol awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration to Kalpna Woolf in recognition of her contribution and commitment to economic and social equality and diversity initiatives in Bristol.

The honorary degree was conferred at the Awards Ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Wednesday 18 July at 10:30.

Kalpna completed her early education in London culminating in a BA Hons in Russian from University of London, Queen Mary College. Since she came to Bristol 20 years ago, Kalpna has been a major influencer for change in our region – both at senior board and grassroots level. After an award-winning career in the BBC, where she was Head of Production overseeing a £100m global business including the BBC’s world-renowned Natural History Unit (including ‘Planet Earth, Antiques Roadshow, Rick Stein, Countryfile and many other factual series), Kalpna was recognised for her work in the media in 2013, winning the national Asian Women’s Achievement Award.

She continues to work within the creative sector and alongside this, she has established an impressive portfolio career underpinned by her business track record and her passion for social justice and equality. She has held positions on business and charity boards including Chair of Trustees for Frank Water, business advisor and Chair of the Skills Group to the West of England LEP Board. Her board work and drive for inclusive and economic equality has led her to launch the BeOnBoard programme which is striving to deliver diversity on business boards.

She devised a Masters programme in Production Management in the Media for UWE and was awarded Visiting Professorship for the Faculty of Business and Law.

She has written a best–selling food book – Spice Yourself Slim – and in 2015 she founded 91 Ways to Build A Global City – an innovative charity which reaches out to unite all the 91 language communities in Bristol, to bring greater understanding, break down barriers and build a more cohesive city. Three years on, the charity has run Peace Cafes connecting more than 10,000 people at over 100 events and modeled a template for similar projects to be rolled out in other cities in the UK.

Kalpna has won four other national awards including the BBC’s Food and Farming Hero Award, the Guild of Food Writers Inspiration Award and MTM Woman of the Year award.

Honorary degree awarded to Vanessa Moon

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UWE Bristol awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration to Vanessa Moon in recognition of her contribution and commitment to enterprise development, the third sector and the local community.

The honorary degree was conferred at the Awards Ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Tuesday 17 July at 17:00.

Vanessa Moon is Managing Director of Moon Consulting Ltd, a leading Executive Search firm which is based in a beautifully converted Old Fire Station in Pill, Bristol with a satellite office in London. Vanessa co-founded the business in 2000 perceiving a need for a return to the personal touch in senior level recruitment and is a firm advocate of the company’s core values of being distinctive, ethical and approachable in all their undertakings.

Moon Consulting has grown steadily to a full-service team of 11 managing high level and confidential executive search and head hunting campaigns for clients in the UK and Internationally. Clients range from start-ups, family owned concerns, major banks as well as AIM and FTSE Listed businesses. They also have significant experience in the ‘not-for-profit’ and charity sectors.

Vanessa herself brings 30 years senior management and board level Executive recruitment experience, recruiting mainly board level roles for her clients; specialising in the placement of Non-Executive Directors, CEOs/ MDs, CFOs, Sales, Operations and HR Directors.

Prior to Moon Consulting, Vanessa graduated from Aston University in 1983 with a BSc (Hons) in Human Communication and then worked for Rank Xerox. After that she worked for a US owned Accountancy recruitment firm moving to Bristol in 1992 to manage their regional office and then joined a Venture Capital Backed search firm before setting up Moon in 2000.

Outside of Moon Consulting, Vanessa has always been involved with the wider Bristol community. She is currently Senior Warden of the Bristol Guild of Guardians and was appointed President of the Dolphin Society for 2017/2018. She is a member of the South West Regional Council of the CBI and is on the Advisory Board of The Faculty of Business and Law for The Bristol Business School at the University of the West of England. She is on the committee of the Lord Mayor of Bristol’s Children Appeal and Gift Gala, a Trustee with The Royal West of England Academy and a former Trustee of Spike Island.

Honorary degree awarded to Rob Law MBE

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UWE Bristol awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration to Rob Law MBE, in recognition of his contribution and commitment to enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The honorary degree was conferred at the Awards Ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Tuesday 17 July at 14:00.

Rob Law MBE is the founder and CEO of Trunki, the brand behind the much-loved ride-on suitcase for tots. From one of the most famous rejections on BBC Dragons’ Den in 2006, Rob has successfully built a team who have pioneered a new retail category of children’s travel products, designing and creating a range of innovative solutions which help families on the go.

Since Trunki launched in May 2006, the company has sold 3.8 million suitcases in over 100 countries with consumers spending over $200 million on his brand. Trunki employs 25 people at their funky head office in Bristol called The Mothership, and a further 55 people at its UK manufacturing and distribution facility – Magma Moulding – in Plymouth.

The company has won over 120 awards within the design, trade, consumer and business sectors including reaching 42nd on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and winning The National Business Awards SME of the Year.

Rob originally hails from Chester and is 40 years old. He graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Product Design in 2000 from the University of Northumbria and has worked internationally, including periods in New York, Taiwan, Australia and for some of the UK’s leading design consultancies.

On New Year’s Day 2011, Rob was awarded an MBE for Services to Business, and went on to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering from Bath University in 2015.

Rob is a popular and engaging personality on the speaking circuit, not least for his ‘dragon slaying’ tips, his fresh take on running a business and how to navigate the ever evolving challenges in the global marketplace, sharing his motivational story at large business conferences through to blue chip management teams.

He is also passionate about inspiring future business leaders and designers, as well as a judge for several national business awards, he also holds the following pro bono positions:

• UWE Advisory Board member at Faculty of Business and Management

• Prince’s Trust Ambassador and recipient of support in 2002

• ACID (Anti-Copying In Design) Ambassador

• Cystic Fibrosis Trust Patron for the Sixty-Five Roses Club

• Design council Spark programme Investment committee

When not designing tomorrow’s must have on-the-go products, Rob enjoys spending time with his young family and is an amateur triathlete, often found cycling around his adopted home of Bristol.

Honorary degree awarded to John Pullinger

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UWE Bristol has awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science to John Pullinger in recognition of his contribution to the communication of statistics and economics, particularly for the advice, support and engagement of the Civil Service with the higher education system.

The honorary degree was  conferred at the Awards Ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Monday 16 July at 17:00.

John Pullinger has been the National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority since July 2014.

His role is to safeguard the production and publication of high quality official statistics by all public departments, agencies and institutions in the UK. On appointment he described his role as to mobilise the power of data to help Britain make better decisions. His priorities are to improve measurement of the economy, to bring better evidence to public policy debates and to enhance data capability.

John’s career began in 1980 when he joined the Civil Service after graduating in geography and statistics from Exeter University. After several statistical, research and policy roles in different departments, John joined the Central Statistical Office as a senior civil servant in 1992. He was the project manager for the creation of the Office for National Statistics and was the policy lead on the development of the GSS. He worked on diverse projects and subject areas, including responsibility for flagship publications like ‘Social Trends’, leading the neighbourhood statistics programme as well as being actively involved in the creation of the Statistics Commission and National Statistics in 2000.

In 2004, John became the 14th Librarian to the House of Commons a post he held until taking up his current role.

John is a Chartered Statistician and was President of the Royal Statistical Society (2013-14). He has represented the UK internationally in EU, UN, OECD and other forums, was Chair (2015) and Vice-Chair (2016) of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) and is a member of the Board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

John is married with three adult children. He was appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2014 for services to Parliament and to the community, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and holds honorary degrees from the universities of Exeter and Essex.

Tips for being a good mentor

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At the early stages of my career, I had a mentor who would always give me time whenever I had an issue, however, to get his attention I would have to go and stand outside with him whilst he listened, quietly puffed away on his pipe and asked me a few questions. This approach worked for me (despite the pipe-smoke) and I quickly developed in my role as felt trusted to do a good job. On reflection, he demonstrated all five factors identified by Julie Starr (2014) of what good mentors do well:

  1. Connect through effective listening
  2. Build a relationship of engagement and trust
  3. Maintain an effective focus
  4. Help overcome false limits, roadblocks or barriers to progress
  5. Help someone grow

However, if your mentoring is online, rather than face-to-face what are the key factors to bear in mind when you volunteer to be someone’s mentor?

  • Building rapport and a relationship is still important – some recent research found that alignment of values may be more important in e-mentoring than other factors such as matching gender or ethnicity (Bierema, 2017)
  • Be clear about the purpose of the mentoring – you both need to have a shared understanding of the mentoring process and agree expectations between you.
  • Most importantly, when online, ensuring you respond to your mentee in a timely Set a realistic expectation of how much time you can commit to mentoring right at the start.
  • Encourage your mentee to identify their own goals and work through ways towards these rather than going straight in with advice/ suggestions. Good mentoring is rarely just about advice (see five points above)!
  • Think about the structure of your mentoring and how you can enable the mentee to move on. At a mutually agreed end point, encourage a bit of reflection and share feedback and learning.

Just as ‘random acts of kindness’ can make us feel great, so too can offering your time and a ‘listening ear’ as on online mentor. Of course, if you get started as an online mentor and really enjoy your role, you can further develop your coaching/ mentoring capability on one of our programmes at Bristol Business School.

Gina Burns
Senior Lecturer Organisation Studies

References

Bierema, L (2017) e-Mentoring: Computer Mediated Career Development for the future in Eds. Clutterbuck, D. A, Kochan, F.K, Lunsford L, Dominguez,  N & Haddock-Millar, J, The Sage Handbook of Mentoring, London: Sage Publications.

Hooley, T,  Hutchinson, J and Neary, S (2016) Ensuring quality in online career mentoring, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 44 (1), pp26-41.

Starr, J (2014) The Mentoring Manual, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

BA Accounting and Finance student receives prize from Grant Thornton

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Cherily Lim, a BA Accounting and Finance student, has been awarded a prize by chartered accountants Grant Thornton for scoring the highest in the Audit and Corporate Governance exam.

Cherily is a student from Taylor’s University in Malaysia. Taylor’s is one of our partner universities and because of that Cherily had the opportunity to study for her final year of her degree at UWE Bristol.

Cherily commented:

“ I found it interesting and enjoyable to study at UWE Bristol. I really enjoyed how each lecture was taught, especially for the Audit & Corporate Governance module.

The audit simulation helped me a lot in understanding every procedure of an audit. I worked really hard for the exam so I’m so pleased all the hard work paid off and I achieved the highest grade”

Cherily will be awarded the prize at her graduation ceremony.

Congratulations Cherily!

David Hong Tsung Lan to receive honorary degree for government role

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Professor Dr David Hong Tsung Lan is to be awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)in recognition of his long and prestigious career in government in Hong Kong and his contribution to international trade and education.

Born in Shanghai, David completed his early education in Hong Kong, joining the Hong Kong Civil Service in 1961 before studying to become a Chartered Secretary in addition to earning an external BA degree from London University.

During his time with the Hong Kong Civil Service, David worked in a variety of departments, including the Transport and Housing Authority. In 1979 David was appointed Official Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong.

In 1988, he was appointed Regional Secretary for Hong Kong and Kowloon before being appointed to Hong Kong’s Principal Economic and Trade Representative based in Japan. In 1997, after the handover of Hong Kong, David became the first Secretary for Home Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government.

David currently holds a variety of Board positions in the banking, commercial, infrastructure development and trust sectors including non-executive directorship to Nanyang Commercial Bank (Hong Kong) and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, Hong Kong.

David has been conferred with many awards including Doctor of Humanities and two Visiting Professorships from overseas institutions. In 1991, David was awarded the Imperial Service Order for his services to the Civil Service and in 2000 the Gold Bauhinia Star Medal in recognition of his contribution to public service.

The honorary degree will be conferred at the awards ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Tuesday 28 November at 5pm.

Journalist to receive honorary degree for contribution to business engagement

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Andrew Lynch is to be awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) in recognition of his contribution to business and academic-business engagement.

Andrew, 58, has served as assistant business editor of The Sunday Times since 2009.

He graduated from Bristol Polytechnic, where he read humanities, in 1984 and joined the Bristol Evening Post as a reporter. After spells at the Financial Times, the Guardian and Sunday Telegraph, Andrew spent 10 years in Hong Kong as deputy night editor at the South China Morning Post and then editor of the rival Hong Kong Standard. He returned to the UK in 2002, working at the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and the Irish Daily Mail in Dublin. He spent a year organising research and events for the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers.

At The Sunday Times, Andrew oversees production of the business section as well as writing about small businesses or editing the diary column. He also arranges events focused on the business agenda and has produced magazines and supplements such as 50 Years of Business, The Start-up List and The MBA List. He also curates the annual Maserati 100 list of entrepreneurs.

The honorary degree will be conferred at the awards ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law at Bristol Cathedral on Tuesday 28 November at 2pm.

UWE Academics attend UWE Graduation at the National Economics University in Vietnam

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Patricia Voaden and Ray Priest represented the Bristol Business School at the UWE Graduation held at National Economics University (NEU) on August 8th. NEU is one of the leading universities in Economics, Public Management and Business Administration in Vietnam and is one of UWE Bristol’s partnership Universities.

 It is a prestigious centre for economic research and a consulting centre for economics and management.

51 students graduated from the BA Business Management and BA Banking and Finance degree programmes. Their success was celebrated in style with beautiful flower arrangements adorning the hall and hundreds of parents and staff in attendance.

This was the ninth cohort to graduate with UWE degrees at NEU and, as always, the results achieved by students were outstanding.

The new Vice President of NEUpraised the support his staff received from UWE colleagues and said that he was determined to expand provision by 2020 as part of their strategic plan.

He commented that the values of both institutions in preparing students to be confident, articulate and caring graduates was what made our partnership so enduring and asked for his congratulations to the whole of the Bristol Business School to be shared.

One student,Vu Thuy Duong, who received a First Class Honours Degree in Banking and Finance, received a special £3000 scholarship for her postgraduate studies at UWE. She received a letter from Donna Whitehead praising her for her achievements and this was read to all present. On receiving the award, Thuy said that:

                  “she promised not to let down all the staff at UWE who had such faith in her”

Congratulations to all who graduated. More information on our partnership with NEU and other institutions globally can be found here.

 

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