The Early Career Development Programme is the University’s commitment to developing our early career academic staff, offering support and guidance for their professional aspirations and aligned to the University’s strategic aims as outlined in ‘Inspiring People, Changing the World’.

The Programme began in 2013 and has recently been reviewed, as the colleagues who have benefited from ECDP began to be promoted this year. 

You can see Murray Pittock, Pro-Vice Principal - Special Projects and Programme Sponsor, discuss the Programme on the ECDP website: Programme Enhancements – September 2016.

Feedback and Consultation

At this stage, a period of consultation was felt appropriate and a number of channels were explored, including focus groups delivered in partnership with a range of key stakeholders, featuring current Programme participants. We are extremely thankful to all those who took part; without your considered feedback, we would be unable to deliver such exciting and positive improvements to the Programme.

What’s changed?

We are delighted to announce wide-ranging improvements to the Programme, which will be live from this month. These include, but are not limited to:

  • A streamlining of the Programme, now common to all Colleges and offering one cohesive approach
  • A significant proportion of the Programme content will now be delivered directly by the College/School/Research Institute, allowing for content to be tailored to participants’ particular requirements
  • A further portion of content will remain centrally delivered, including a new comprehensive Induction Session, and Promotion Criteria workshops
  • All participants will now have a bespoke ‘individual learning pathway’, created in partnership with their line manager and mentor, and signed off by their Head of School
  • Alignment, for the first time, of ECDP and PDR timescales, giving academic colleagues greater cohesion between their career progression activities and their PDR objectives
  • Greater differentiation between Grades 7 and 8

Who does this impact?

The following staff appointed on continuing contracts at Grades 7 and 8 will be taken into membership of the programme:

  • Those employed on the Research & Teaching track
  • Those employed on the Teaching, Learning & Scholarship track
  • Those independent researchers appointed on the Research track on contracts of more than 36 months and that do not have a funding review date

It will be for Colleges to determine whether or not researchers accruing continuous service of more than three years be taken into membership of the Early Career Development Programme.

Those newly appointed researchers employed on LKAS and prestigious external fellowships such as Leverhulme, British Society, Royal Academy, British Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, etc. will be assigned a mentor, have access to modules on the ECDP Development Programme and have their PDR objectives reviewed at College level and by the ECDP panel.

When does it begin?

The updated Early Career Development Programme is now live for eligible early Career Academics, and the initial Induction Events will begin in November, with invitations to be extended shortly.

What if I am in the middle of the Programme

There are no new or extra requirements for participants who are already part way through the Programme, although there may be some new development opportunities which may be beneficial.

What are the benefits to me?

These are very exciting changes to the Programme, and they offer all participants much improved clarity on content, expectations and impact, complemented by a robust, valuable and tailored ‘individual learning pathway’ to help facilitate career development in the most supportive, timely manner. We believe these improvements will help offer stronger support and development opportunities to all participants.

You can see programme participant Pauline Mackay, Lecturer in Robert Burns Studies, talk about her experience of the Programme on the ECDP website: Programme Enhancements – September 2016.

Where can I find more information?

  • The full Early Career Development framework is available on the ECDP website.
  • For further assistance, contact the HR Team: hr-acadprob-ecdp@glasgow.ac.uk.  

First published: 6 September 2016

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