STAFF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
1. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IMPERATIVES
Staff will also be maintaining a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Plan and will undertake appropriate development and training throughout their career with the institution. New staff will be given an induction to the UK Education System and the different programmes they are likely to conduct, which will include programme specifications, assessment requirements, record keeping, quality standards and verification process. The Staff Development Policy provides the Course Leaders, Course Administrators and Faculties a means to boost morale, increase efficiency, compensate quality and instill continuous improvement among the staff members.
1. UniAthena has been established on the motto of building and sustaining a strong and enduring reputation for excellence in international education. This can be made into reality only by commitment of the entire staff to the institution’s cause. Staff Training and Development Policy is formulated to equip faculty members with high quality of training and development to enable them to effectively engage with their respective teaching programmes. The objectives of Staff Development Policy are as follows:
• To design, develop and nurture proactive, efficient, high quality teaching environment.
• To encourage faculty members to gain and sustain expertise in their domain area, update with current trends and be aware of the continuing professional development paradigm.
• To practice team spirit, to shape leadership and mentorship skills and develop creativity.
• To help staff understand, practice and demonstrate the vision, mission and values on which the institution is founded. The staff members will commit themselves to the core values of industry interaction, scope and environment for growth; prepare each individual as a well-rounded personality who will support the society in the best possible way.
2. Staff developments create a strong base to achieve the Institution’s objectives and appropriate resources should be committed to staff development on a continual basis.
3. UniAthena will completely adhere to the policy of equal opportunity for all and hence the Staff Development Policy is non-discriminatory. Development opportunities are open and available to all staff members irrespective of their physical, gender, origin or social differences.
4. Individual staff members and the academic management share complete responsibility to keep the ongoing plans up-to-date and to enable continual development of all the staff members.
5. The principal responsibility for staff development lies with the individual staff member. The Institution will provide a congenial working environment and necessary infrastructure for individual development. The staff will enjoy all freedom to recommend for selftraining/developmental programmes to the Academic Head of the institute.
6. UniAthena will also ensure that equal opportunities are given to each staff member in the form of attending academic and training events outside, as well as internal trainings, for their personal growth, which will benefit the organization too as a whole. Also, extra-curricular events will be organized for all staff members to help them develop their soft skills, which are critical for any individual and organizational success.
2. GUIDANCE TOWARDS STAFF DEVELOPMENT
a. The Academic Team of the institution, headed by its Academic Head will identify development needs of individual staff members and design or suggest appropriate development programmes of staff members.
b. The Academic Head will create a conducive learning environment, will identify development needs after continuous observation of the individual staff members, and through the appraisal of the staff members. The same will be discussed on a yearly basis to identify the development needs of staff members as part of continuous improvement and development. Development programmes will be planned, resources identified and the same would be monitored to ensure effective implementation.
c. Processes and systems will support the CPD, but it would be the responsibility of each individual staff member also to further his/her own personal development. The broader perspectives of development are:
• Learning and development for the current role.
• Learning and development for the role in future.
• Development for long term career growth.
• Development of soft skill of staff members.
• Development of staff as mentors.
• Development as good team members.
3. CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The College enables staff to participate in a range of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities in order to enhance their knowledge, reflect upon and develop their practice, and contribute towards a fully inclusive institutional culture.
All the staff members at UniAthena are encouraged to take responsibility of their own continuous development. UniAthena deems it necessary for staff members to equip themselves with necessary skills and knowledge. The purpose is not only to enrich their current capabilities but also to prepare them for potential roles and responsibilities. Skills and knowledge acquired in this way is expected to contribute to the continued success of the organization.
There are formal and informal ways available to staff at the College to achieve the objectives. Formal ways include attending an organised training event or workshop, or working towards a formal qualification delivered by an external provider. Informal ways include peer-to-peer learning opportunities, engaging in discussions, attending meetings, etc. The performance appraisal, online recorded class observations, peer observation, internal verifications of assessments, student feedback, self-initiated requests/self-identification of developmental need etc. are part of the mechanism which identifies the developmental needs of staff
4. QUALITY ASSURANCE
Our approach to quality assurance is focused and effective. We believe that quality is about how we build our expertise and capacity to improve, and using those developments to enhance the quality of the student learning experience through our faculties and personal tutors. Quality assurance is a continuous cycle of self- assessment and target setting for new and interesting challenges to help us make improvements, and enhance the provision. It is reflected in the UniAthena committee structure (Quality Assurance Academic Committee, Student Welfare Committee, etc.) with a number of areas having quality assurance as a primary focus. At the end of each academic year UniAthena reviews that the Quality Assurance requirements are aligned with international, national and local quality requirements of higher education. The outcome of this review determines how the Curriculum is shaped and delivered in the following year. We thus ensure a fit-for- purpose learning environment, which puts quality at the centre of everything we do.
5. TEACHING AND LEARNING
UniAthena is committed to helping its staff develop in their current job and beyond for their further development. It provides opportunities to help staff at all levels to develop new skills and new successful working practices. Staffing policy ensures that the recruited staff is properly and appropriately qualified and experienced, and their teaching is upgraded through active participation in research and relevant scholarly, professional, training or consultancy activities.
The academic staff holds required academic qualification or equivalent experience to actively engage in designing, developing, teaching and assessing various programmes. The Institution will encourage the staff to draw upon research, scholarship or professional activity to further advance in their teaching and domain expertise. Required arrangements will be made by the institution for supporting staff in such activities. Upon the involvement of part-time or visiting staff used for delivering a programme at the institution, adequate mechanisms should be effectively made to promote their integration and access to staff development opportunities.
6. STAFF FEEDBACK
Feedback to staff will be given at different levels of conduct of a course/ module, so that there is continuous improvement from the feedback disseminated and the whole process thereby gets refined. The different levels of feedback given to faculties are given below.
Level 1-Formative Feedback
• This will begin right from the start when the module is being prepared by the faculty, including the internal verification process.
• The presentations and the lesson plan will be reviewed by the Course Leader and improvements/ amendments where envisaged are conveyed t
• The faculty.
• The assignment brief will be modified or changed as per the recommendations given by the IV/ Lead IV in the formative stage itself.
Level 2-During Conduct Feedback
• When initial 2-3 classes have been conducted, feedback from students is taken through esurvey / course administrator and the points pertaining to faculty conduct are conveyed to him/ her, so that changes/ amendments, if required can be adopted straight away.
• This is to ensure that transfer of learning is complete and if there are voids/ gaps observed, then the same can be reviewed during conduct to close in the gaps observed. Level 3-Summative Feedback
• Students’ reaction and feedback is taken with respect to the classes conducted after the conduct of the full module, through e-survey.
• Feedback pertaining to the students’ response is discussed with the concerned faculty for future implementation of the gaps observed during the conduct of the whole module. Level 4-Process Changes.
• Any training should have a major impact on students learning and application of the same through review of assignments’ results.
• Be able to gauge the results of the course/ module in terms of meeting its contextual requirements. Gather such feedback from different courses/ modules also. In case if changes are required in the process of conduct of classes or making of assignment briefs or the internal verification process, the same is adopted, if required, at the academic meeting of all staff members.
• For any process and system changes, comprehensive feedback will be taken into consideration at all levels mentioned above, including taking feedback from faculty/ assessor, as well as students’ feedback, both formal and informal. Based on the feedback process, the concerned faculty will be briefed in detail by the Academic Head of the Institution. The strengths and weakness discussed, including how can the faculty improve further in conduct and delivery as part of the whole CPD process.
7. STAFF & STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES
7.1 Extra-curricular Activities: Apart from classes, a number of extra-curricular activities will be conducted for students like Webinars to coach students on soft skills aspects, interact with leading industry leaders, motivational speakers, etc. These events will be organized by the academic team, along with students’ representatives.
7.2 Experiential Learning Activities: Regular experiential online learning activities will be conducted by faculties to give a real pragmatic experience to all students in various management modules being delivered. All new faculties will be given adequate training, as well as the older faculties given refresher training in use of experiential training aids for conducting these activities with students, organized by the Academic Head of the institution. The Institution have acquired a number of experiential training aids, and these should be made use of by all faculties during conduct of webinars and classes.
