High Street bank, RBS, is taking the lead among corporate sponsors of The Springboard Consultancy (SBC)’s ‘Sprint’ training programme, which has been designed specifically to address undergraduate women’s study and career issues.

Other SBC Sprint programme sponsors include Microsoft, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Oliver Wyman, BP, EY, Shell and Deutsch Bank but RBS has enabled six of its staff to become fully licensed Sprint trainers. Part of their Early Career team, this group of RBS Sprint trainers is now running Sprint programmes for undergraduates, around the UK across more than 10 educational institutions, having reached more than a 1000 students so far.

Designed for undergraduate women, from all backgrounds, ages and stages in their lives and study, Sprint grew from research by the Oxford University Careers Service which revealed that women graduates failed to get as prestigious and financially rewarding jobs as their male contemporaries.

“Sprint has been developed to help close this gap and end the disparity,” said SBC joint-CEO Jenny Daisley OBE. “Sprint aims to enable female students – regardless of their subject, department or career aspirations – to develop to their fullest potential.”

Built on work carried out by the University of Cambridge and further developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the Sprint programme adds value to the overall student experience at university, improves employability and helps to ensure that each undergraduate has the best possible chance to develop to her full potential.

According to Liz Willis OBE, joint-CEO of SBC, “Many women use the Sprint programme to help them focus on their studies at university, achieving results such as improved visibility and effectiveness in tutorials, better time management, less study stress, a boost in confidence and self-esteem. They also use Sprint to sharpen their career goals, raise their aspirations, explore possibilities and to take advantage of the work shadowing and coaching often offered by corporate sponsors.

“In addition to helping them in their work careers, participants in the Sprint programme tend to find it also helps them to achieve results in their personal lives – such as sorting out difficult relationships, improving fitness and gaining a better study/life balance.”

Jenny Daisley OBE (left) and Liz Wilis OBE, joint CEOs of The Springboard Consultancy.

RBS’s ‘Sprint’ project leader, Kate Llewellyn-Cripps, commented, “We’re most impressed with the material contained in the programme. It’s inspirational and can bring lasting benefits, changing lives and enlightening the participants who complete it. As a result, we have managed to engage more female talent and help them realise their potential – a core aim of our Early Career activity.

“And on a personal development level, Sprint is helping those within RBS who’ve experienced it as helpers and guest speakers to develop – providing key tips and learning which we can implement personally and professionally.”

SBC is an international training company, with a proven track record in work and personal development training, particularly addressing women’s development issues – especially via its award-winning ‘Springboard Women’s Development Programme’. Its core business is training and licensing trainers to deliver award-winning development courses – to people of both genders and all ages – via an international network of professional licensed trainers in locations around the world. In this way, over 240,000 people have used its programmes and over 1,300 trainers have been trained in 42 countries around the world.

SBC has developed a reputation for creativity, innovation and quality, balanced with down-to-earth pragmatism and good value. It believes that everyone is ‘born to shine’ and that life circumstances and lack of skills and opportunities often prevent that happening, to the detriment of all. It uses training to enable everyone, especially women, to develop themselves further – benefitting the person, their employer, family and community.