Changes to your Professional@York events

Professional@York was established in 2014 following feedback from the staff survey. Professional support staff indicated that they felt undervalued and that they could add significantly more value to the overall performance of the University if their talents were recognised and harnessed. The latest survey results highlighted that we are making progress in this area but that there is still work to do.

Since it was launched, over 1500 professional and support staff have engaged with Professional@York activities, which have included:

  • Development and Assessment centres (DACs) for grades 5 - 8
  • Conference for all professional support staff
  • Award ceremony
  • Role Alignment
  • Ambitious Futures Graduate Scheme
  • Sponsored events - AUA conference Tech York and visiting guest speakers

We would like to build on the great work already taking place through Professional@York and continue to develop the offering to make sure it is still relevant and accessible to all professional and support staff at York.

Feedback from staff highlighted that not everyone could access the conference and that an 18 month period between events was too long. To improve this, we propose to replace the conference with smaller more frequent events that will run throughout the year and give colleagues the opportunity to get together and network.

Instead of an annual conference, we will holding the following events:

In a Nutshell - these one hour events will give individuals the opportunity to increase their level of knowledge and understanding of key activities going on at an institutional level. Open to all professional and support staff they will run monthly.

Thematic Forums - Three-hour events held once a term - these will focus around a key strategic theme and will involve a blend of input, discussion and networking and include guest speakers. Open to all professional and support staff.

Leadership lunch - these events will provide an opportunity for Heads of Professional Services and direct reports to network, share updates, share and embed best practice and connect as a senior leadership team.

We will continue to hold the Awards ceremony every 18 months as well as run the Development and Assessment centres.

Please visit the Professional@York web page for updates and news about events. We really appreciate the work professional and support staff make to the success of York and hope that these new activities mean more people can engage with and benefit from Professional@York.

Visit the Professional@York pages