Leadership South West

This major initiative, funded by the South West Regional Development Agency, will establish a Centre of Excellence in Leadership in the South West of England to improve the uptake and provision of leadership skills provision in the region.

The primary objective of the Centre will be to increase the uptake of leadership development activities within the South West region as a whole. In terms of scope the project will focus on organisations within the following categories (in priority order):

Economically Important Sectors in the Region - and their supply chains (i.e. Advanced Engineering (including Aerospace), ICT, Food and Drink, Marine, Tourism, Creative Industries, Biotechnology and Environmental Technologies)
SMEs (Small and medium sized enterprises, up to 250 employees)
Public and Voluntary Sector

In line with the CEML recommendations, the programme will address two main areas: increasing the level of demand for leadership development amongst the target audience and improving the supply of appropriate learning opportunities. To achieve this the project will:

Stimulate interest - organise and run a variety of programmes (e.g. regional conferences, press campaigns) designed to stimulate interest in management skills development generally, and leadership development specifically.
Information hub - establish a hub for leadership development within the region (including an interactive website, e-newsletters, publications and press articles) and act as gateway to signpost people to what is available.
Network - develop partnerships with skills development providers/agencies, business service providers and a variety of other projects in order to develop and spread best practice.
New solutions - work alongside organisations and skills development providers in order to design and implement new approaches to developing people in leadership positions (affordable, attractive, relevant, etc.)
World class resource - accelerate the development of national and international partnerships and make this world class faculty and body of knowledge accessible to the SW region.
Qualifications - increase accessibility to leadership qualifications equivalent to NVQ level 5/6 through scholarships for individuals from eligible organisations (SMEs)

The initial duration of the project will be 3 years, and started in Summer 2003. The project organisation includes a project team based at the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter, led by a professional Project Manager. The Project Manager reports to the Centre's Director and to a Steering Group made up of relevant stakeholders from the University, from the region (e.g. SWRDA, Business Link, Learning & Skills Councils), and national partners (e.g. IiP, CIPD).