- Chester County Intermediate Unit
- About the Program
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The CCIU is excited to announce the opening of the 2020-21 Leadership Development Program cohort! While the program continues to evolve based on past participant feedback, now in its fourth year, it has proven successful in growing leadership skills through interactive training and unique cross-divisional experiences.
Who? CCIU project and professional staff not currently in a major administrative or supervisory role, or brand new to the role. *Anyone can apply, but they must have the support of their supervisor.
What? This program provides project-based learning with mentor guidance and training sessions. Lead a team to complete a cross-divisional project. Present your final results to an administrator/supervisor group.
Why? This program will help you set yourself up for success by providing the following:
- Practical experience with mentor support
- Development of key leadership skills
- Organizational exposure
- Supported participation in new initiatives
What to expect as a member of the Leadership Development Program:
Contact Us
Program Outline
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Format
- Training is project based
- Each cohort member will be given the opportunity to either propose a project or select a project from a given list.
- Projects should be outside your daily job responsibilities and should be cross-divisional.
- Any CCIU employee is welcome to propose a project idea!
- Members will have approximately five months to complete at least one of the following stages of a project:
- Analysis and design
- Development
- Implementation
- Each cohort member will be the primary lead for their project and will be responsible for leading a team based on project needs
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Support
- In addition to a project owner who will provide guidance on the tasks of the actual project, each cohort member will also be assigned a leadership mentor (not in their department) who can offer guidance on building leadership skills
- All cohort members will experience a single training session on project management with follow-up, bi-monthly check-in sessions for discussion and learning
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Completion
- Each cohort member will have the opportunity to present results to an admin/supervisor group in May
Mentors
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Have you ever used your own experiences to offer perspective or guidance when a colleague asked for advice? That was mentorship! The Leadership Development Training program is looking for mentors like you to share their experiences and knowledge to help build our future leaders. This is an opportunity to make an impact on the lives and careers of other employees — and the future of the CCIU. It's also an opportunity to grow your own skill set and knowledge. Everyone knows you learn more when you teach!
What's involved?
- Mentors will be matched up with participants and will develop a schedule with their mentees for check-ins.
- All mentors will participate in two initial training sessions - one specific to mentors and one in conjunction with the program cohorts - to review the project management process and guidelines for mentoring and leadership.
- Mentors and cohorts will also meet together as a full group two additional times for tabletop discussion on process and results, as well as skill-specific training.
Become a mentor by filling out a Mentor Application!
Projects
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One of the key elements of the Leadership Development Training is the project-based approach to learning. Participants will each receive a CCIU-based project that they will need to move through the project management lifecycle. By working through the various steps of a project, the participants will experience a number of project-based and people-based challenges that leaders often will encounter and as such will build the necessary knowledge and experience needed to grow personally and as a CCIU employee.
At this time we are seeking project ideas. While any idea will be considered, we recommend the following guidelines:
- Project should be something that will in the end benefit the CCIU
- Project should allow for at least one of the following stages of completion within a 4-5 month timeframe:
- Analysis and design of a formalized plan
- Development of project design
- Implementation/execution of project design
- Project ideally will require input from more than one division
- Project incorporates some aspect of challenge/risk - Leaders are not developed solely from completion of successful projects, some of the best leaders have worked through more complicated challenges.
A number of the CCIU's programs have been developed as a result of employee ideas generated through channels such as these. Some examples include: County Cup, Aspire, Special Education Certification, Sourcing maintenance to districts.
Have an idea? Share it!
