As an ‘Accidental Tutor’, the opportunity to take part in educational leadership training was one that I couldn’t miss out on. I attended the Executive Education and Training Programme (PGCert) in September.
With a professional background in banking, and a decade since working at board level across various organisations, including charities and public sector, the delegate experience I bring in both finance and governance executive education programmes is ‘lived experience’. This, in my view is vital for delegates, and brings a contemporary dynamic to an educational setting. My route to the ‘front of the class’, however, was unconventional, therefore, immersing myself in a week of ‘how’ to deliver the ‘why’ was precisely what I needed.
The course itself had all the hallmarks of an INPD programme. An outstanding tutor in Alex Firmin, an expert in his field, with the humility to be challenged and allow the programme to evolve to the needs of the delegates, while staying ‘on track’ to the planned outcomes. INPD programmes also generate significant learning between delegates using organisation experiences, which allows ideas and approaches to develop for use in your own programmes.
I had been seeking a programme of this kind for some time, but hadn’t found anything relevant. The PGCEE was perfect in understanding academic learning structures, including schema theory, taxonomy and socractic method, amongst others, all of which will allow me to further develop my existing and future programmes. I would encourage any accidental tutor to seek out this programme and undertake it as soon as possible. I imagine, also, from an academic background, this would be a perfect refresher programme, and an opportunity to hear current thinking around delivery techniques in executive education.
Finally, being a delegate allowed me to have an immersive experience, and to understand ways to further enhance the experience for delegates. Overall, adding the professional qualification of Qualified Professional Practitioner to my depth of subject knowledge, further adds to my credibility as a tutor, and perhaps now a little less ‘accidental’.