The University’s strength lies in the vitality, quality and diversity of its people. We are committed to building a strong and sustainable community at Southampton and further developing our high-performing workforce.
The University provides opportunities for development for its staff through a number of formal and informal channels, for example:
See below to explore even more development opportunities available to you at Southampton.
All available courses/workshops are publicised on the Professional Development website or available to view on our two online booking systems:
The target audience for each course/workshop is detailed on the course/workshop information webpage. Your attendance should be endorsed by your line manager/principal investigator, so please ensure that you discuss and gain their agreement, prior to booking a place.
All course bookings must be made via the online booking system Staffbook, (or Gradbook if you are a postgraduate researcher).
The first time you use the system you will be asked to register and submit your personal details, including your University username and password.
Once you have registered, you will be able to browse the list of courses and workshops available; these can be sorted by course title, theme, intended audience or date, by clicking the up/down arrows next to the column headings.
To view target audience, brief outline, learning objectives for a course and details of any preparation/reading required before attending, please click on your chosen course title.
To book a place, please tick the box on the line corresponding to your chosen course and date.
Once you have made a booking, confirmation of this plus course information/preparation instructions will be sent by automated email to your inbox and/or mobile phone. Two weeks and 5 days before the event, reminders will be sent in the same way.
If a training session is already fully booked, you may opt to join the waiting list. Should a place become available on the course, the person at the top of the waiting list will automatically be offered a place.
If you are unsuccessful in securing a place, you will need to book onto the next available course date.
You will receive email confirming the training venue prior to the course.
You can cancel your place at any time before the booking closes three days before the event.
To cancel a course, log on to Staffbook (or Gradbook if you are a postgraduate researcher) and click on the ticked box corresponding to the relevant course and date.
The tick will disappear indicating that you have successfully cancelled your place on the course.
If you need to cancel less than 3 days before the event, please email pdu@soton.ac.uk.
Due to the extremely high demand for places on our workshops, late cancellation or failure to attend will normally result in your service/academic unit being charged £75 for an internal course. (Charges for courses facilitated by an external trainer, or taking place off campus, may be considerably higher.)
At the end of a workshop you will be given an evaluation form to complete. Wherever possible this evaluation sheet should be completed immediately and handed to the course tutor prior to leaving the training venue.
If this has not been possible, please return your completed evaluation form to:
Professional Development, (Building 27, Room 3052), University of Southampton, Highfield Campus
Please email pdu@soton.ac.uk with the details and a senior programme developer will contact you. Please note that bespoke activities, as they are outside the unit’s core offering will normally incur a cost to the faculty or professional service.
Learning and development online management pocketbooks help you get up to speed on a subject in a remarkably short space of time.
Covering a wide range of management skills and competencies, these commended online books condense large amounts of information into bite-sized chunks, using keywords, mnemonics, diagrams and cartoons to make the message both interesting and memorable.
For further guidance we recommend you visit the Professional Development website.
As well as attending courses and workshops, the Professional Development Unit (PDU) offers a range of online resources, including the award winning series of management pocketbooks, streamed videos, recommended literature and the ‘good practice’ leadership, management and personal effectiveness knowledge bank.
Your University account also gives you access to a wide range of videos through the LinkedIn Learning online library. These not only include courses on IT skills but also business, management and leadership courses.
You can access a library of short videos from Scott Bradbury, covering both line management and broader working relationships: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/pdu/resources_links/online_resources.html
iSolutions, provide a portfolio of courses - both face-to-face and online - to support the use of a number of University systems and processes.
Your University account also gives you free access to an enormous range of videos on hundreds of pieces of software through LinkedIn Learning.