Career development

To support you in your career, we offer a wide range of opportunities - from individual performance and development reviews to avenues for pursuing your professional interests through study, secondments, conferences and workshops.

The Human Resources Staff and Organisational Development Unit (HR/SODU) offers a range of development opportunities designed to enhance your performance no matter what your position or level. These opportunities are available to both general and academic staff.

Learning opportunities for 2011

• Orientation, induction and welcome events for new staff
• Personal and professional development
• Leadership and management development
• "Feel Good Factor" wellness series
• Financial management series
• Raising awareness
• University process workshops
• Health and safety courses

Women in Leadership Programme
The Women in Leadership Programme aims to provide opportunities for women to develop their leadership skills. Specific objectives include increasing the numbers of women in senior positions, enhancing recruitment and retention of women in non-traditional areas and fostering training, mentoring and career development for academic and general staff women.

Leadership Programme for Women in Senior Positions
The Leadership Programme for Women in Senior Positions aims to provide professional support for women in senior positions by developing a collegial base to work from, improving the working relationships between different parts of the University, enhancing institutional knowledge and skills and increasing understanding of institutional issues.

Leadership Development Programme
The Leadership Development Programme aims to build knowledge, skills and capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of participants in their role as a leader, to broaden their networks within the University and to increase their understanding of the Higher Education environment and The University of Auckland's strategic positioning in this environment. The programme will develop leadership skills and enable both the individual and their Faculty or Service Division to step up their contribution to the activities of the University.

HeadsUp Leadership Programme
The Academic Heads’ Development and Support Programme aims to better equip heads of departments and prospective heads for their role. It includes leadership skills development workshops, mentoring and shadowing relationships and other development activities designed to inspire discussions on scenarios academic heads encounter every day. The programme is designed for Future Heads, New Heads and Academic Heads.

CAD provides training and development services and programmes to help you with your academic work (teaching and research) and IT literacy skills.

Visit CAD

The Centre for Continuing Education offers business and career-enhancing courses to develop your existing skills and build new ones.

Visit the Centre for Continuing Education

Short Courses are relevant, practitioner-focused business and management courses ranging from negotiation skills to strategic planning.

Learn more about Short Courses

To support staff in achieving their personal and professional development goals, the University offers a range of awards, scholarships and fellowships:

General Staff Professional Development Awards
The University’s General Staff Professional Development Awards are awarded twice a year by the Vice-Chancellor. These awards provide an avenue for general staff (either individuals or teams) to further their professional development in such a way as to make an identifiable, significant and excellent contribution to the life of the University in the fields of administration, management, technical or professional services.

The awards are typically used for attending or presenting at conferences, visits to other higher education institutions, staff exchanges, specialised training, coaching, mentoring, shadowing and further study.

General Staff Excellence Awards
The mission of The University of Auckland includes a commitment to excellence across all activities. The University of Auckland General Staff Excellence Awards recognise and reward excellence in leadership, management, and/or technical activities.

There are ten Excellence Awards that could be made each year and all general staff, including teams, are encouraged to apply in the following categories:

• Excellence in contribution to:
  1. Supporting international standing
  2. Supporting research and creative work
  3. Supporting teaching and learning
  4. Supporting the fulfilment of our obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi
  5. Supporting engagement with our communities
  6. Supporting excellent people
  7. Supporting resourcing and organising for quality
• Excellence in teamwork
• Excellence in innovation
• Excellence in leadership

The Awards are contestable across the University and carry with them a citation and monetary prize or grant.

Universitas 21 Staff Fellowships
The University of Auckland is a member of 'Universitas 21' (U21), an international association of comprehensive, research-intensive universities.

Each year the University awards up to four U21 staff fellowships, each to a maximum value of NZ$10,000, to general and academic staff who have demonstrated outstanding innovation in their field and who would benefit from the opportunity to share best practice with at least two other U21 universities. The fellowships cover a wide range of backgrounds in terms of academic discipline, administrative field, seniority, gender balance and specialist skills.

Teaching Excellence Awards
The University of Auckland's annual Teaching Excellence Awards recognise the importance of teaching to the University and applaud, encourage and reward excellence in teaching.

Each year, six Teaching Excellence Awards are granted, in four categories:

• Sustained Excellence in Teaching (three awards)
• Excellence in Research Supervision
• Innovation in Teaching
• Collaboration in Teaching, especially interdisciplinary teaching, and teaching collaborations within and external to the University

All of the University's teaching staff can be nominated for the awards, with winners receiving a medal and a prize of $5,000. Selected awardees also become the University's nominees for appropriate categories in the National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards.