FAQ

The indicative time commitment is ~2 days/month per person. If you delve into the awardee guidance notes there is some high-level information about the time commitment (p.5). The days will be split between in-person and virtual events.

The programme launch event, two inclusive leadership training workshops, alumni launch event and cohort evaluation will be held in person. All coaching, reciprocal mentoring and sponsorship activities will be virtual. (Sponsorship activities can be in person depending on where the two individuals are based from the organisation).

All in-person events will be held in London, either at Prince Phillip House or surrounding event venues (such as the Royal Society) depending on the Academy’s internal availability.

On days that require travel, we will ensure sufficient provisions are provided and focused content to make the best use of the time.

As this is a fully funded opportunity, the time commitment of awardee teams and travel expenses will need to be supported by the applicant’s organisation as a form of in-kind support as we want to ensure full commitment from the organisations taking part. As this is a pilot, requirements may evolve along the way but we will work this out in partnership with awardees.

At this stage, the opportunity is only for organisations in the engineering industry, so we don’t envisage it universities applying in this time around. There may be an opportunity for universities to apply at a later stage, but not in the first two cohorts.

The Academy does not have a crystallised definition of what makes an inclusive leader in engineering. We have purposefully left this open as we recognise that providers will want to input their own expertise and thoughts on what makes an inclusive leader. During the scoping and consultation phase, participants shared their ideas of what makes an inclusive engineering leader and ideas for how we might want to define this are included in the ITT and supporting documents. The Academy will need to keep a focus on defining inclusive leadership in an engineering context.

As this programme is part of our industry-focused work, we had envisioned that the programme would only be open to engineering companies, however, we are open to exploring different types.

This programme is primarily aimed at chartered or non-chartered engineers and technicians working in the engineering industry as this will be assessed during selection. However, individuals working on engineering projects as project managers, directors or coordinators are also eligible members of the team. Please give clear rationale for why each awardee is well-positioned for the team in your application.

This programme is only open to UK-based engineers for now. In future years, this may be expanded to international organisations, but our current funding is to support UK-based engineers.

We envisage an HR Leader being a necessary part of the team, however, this is a pilot, so we are open to challenge. The key thing here is for the person in the HR Leader role to be able to have control or considerable influence over organisational structures (processes/policies etc).

HR is instrumental in ensuring the company project vision aligns with business priorities and supporting the team to implement the training they receive. They will also be pivotal in ensuring good uptake across the organisation as well as usually having experience in delivering such projects in the past. 

If you feel that your position in your organisation enables you to have this degree of influence, then you would be eligible to apply for the HR Leader role. Please clearly articulate how you are well positioned for this as part of your application.

We do understand that some things are unavoidable so we would resolve things on a case-by-case basis and, as it’s a pilot, to some extent we will be learning how to handle the situation along the way. It will likely depend on which member of the team becomes unavailable – e.g. a mid-career leader change would be trickier than a HR leader, whose engagement is more light touch. When thinking about your team, it’s important to consider that the Academy aims to form long-lasting relationships with the awardees of this programme and continue to work with them as alumni to create change within the profession. Prospective applicants who are aligned with this way of thinking would be well-suited to the applicant team.

The mid-career leader must be the primary awardee and main point of contact for the Academy. We have purposefully chosen to primarily aim this initiative at mid-career leaders to develop their ability to drive forward change on inclusion within their organisations with the hope that they take these skills forward into their future senior leadership roles. There is much more training currently available for senior leaders and our scoping found that mid-career leaders are currently under a lot of pressure to deliver on embedding inclusion, but under supported in this area. The senior leader will be responsible for co-delivering the EDI project and will also engage in other pilot activities, for example mentoring and sponsorship. The mid-career leader is not solely responsible for delivery and the senior leader will be expected to proactively support the mid-career leader throughout the pilot.

We have defined early career leadership as: “You should be in the beginning stages of your career and should be demonstrating leadership qualities or potential. You may be in a leadership role of some sort in your personal or professional life, however, this is not a requirement.”

Primarily aimed at chartered or non-chartered engineers and technicians working in the engineering industry – this will be prioritised upon selection. However, individuals working on engineering projects as project managers, directors or coordinators are also eligible members of the team. You will have the chance to explain why your team members are the best-positioned people in the organisation in your application.

All awardees who think they are well suited for this opportunity can put themselves forward to be part of a team. Roles are defined as:

• mid-career leader – you should be an aspiring senior leader who is on track to progress into a senior leadership position in the next five years. You will likely have significant people management responsibilities or be in an influential position within the organisation 
• senior leader - you are at the top of the organisation’s structure sitting on the Senior Leadership Team (or equivalent) or Trustee Board of the organisation 
• early-career leader - you should be in the beginning stages of your career and should be demonstrating leadership qualities or potential. You may be in a leadership role of some sort in your personal or professional life, however this is not a requirement 
• human resources leader – you should be someone in the organisation with personnel responsibilities who controls organisational structures such as policies, procedures, and staff learning and development.

The HR Leader has a key role to play. They will receive less inclusive leadership training than the other engineering leaders as scoping showed there is a tendency for HR professionals to move industries more frequently. HR Leader will gain the most value through supporting the design and delivery of the EDI project with guidance from Included (our externtal training partner). HR Leader will be trained to support the set up and delivery of activities such as mentoring and sponsorship, which with give the HR Leader experience in this area. A full break down of what the HR Leader will be involved in is below:

HR Leader:

• Launch Event
• Workshop 1
• Company Project Planning Workshop
• Inclusive leadership coaching – what to expect in an effective programme
• Managing a successful sponsorship programme 
• Managing a successful reciprocal mentoring programme 
• Alumni Kick-Off event 
• End of cohort evaluation and reflection 

Yes, a full team needs to form and apply in together.

There will be a scoring process and an interview process. Unsuccessful applicants will receive feedback on their application. For applications that are close to being selected but need more work, we will provide feedback and applicants will have a chance to update their applications. We will certainly keep in touch with all applicants for Cohort 1 and invite them to apply for Cohort 2 if unsuccessful.

To develop a scaleable, practical and evidence-based model for building inclusive leadership and cultures in the engineering industry, which up skills leaders at all levels and supports them to take meaningful action towards inclusive practice. To make this model accessible to engineering companies at scale. To grow a community of inclusion champions – individuals and organisations – and leverage their collective power to catalyses change towards greater inclusion across the profession.

One application per awardee team. Organisations can submit up to five applications, but only one team per organisation will be chosen.

No, we a flexible on this. The mid-career leader will be responsible for leading the submission of the bid, so it will be up to them to secure the necessary buy-in from other leaders in their organisation. This may mean that the team know each other, but this is not a prerequisite for application.

Given the short timeframe and limited scale of the pilot, the Academy is most interested in understanding how the activities lead to change at the individual level and potential early indications of further change. We therefore do not expect that every aspect of the Theory of Change can be effectively assessed, as longer-term and systematic outcomes and impacts may be challenging to capture effectively (though we would still be interested to explore with you how monitoring and evaluation for future phases of the plans might seek to capture). The Pilot offers the opportunity to test the effectiveness of the approach in different contexts (for example, organisation size, sector) and the value that different types of projects bring to awardees (for example, internal vs. cross-company), so providers may wish to outline how they would use this Pilot opportunity to test how different contexts relate to impact.