Mental health and wellbeing webinars for leaders from ETF

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has announced a series of three webinars for leaders focusing on mental health and wellbeing that will take place in early 2023. They are aimed at senior, middle and aspiring leaders, and intended to raise participants’ awareness and confidence of, and develop their leadership skills around, mental health and wellbeing.

The first session takes place on Wednesday 11 January (3.30pm to 5pm). It will focus on leaders sharing their journey in changing their approach to mental health and supporting managers in their organisations to do the same. The second session, on Monday 30 January (9.30am to 11am), will focus on what leaders can do to support the mental health of staff. For the final session, on Thursday 2 March (9.30am to 11am), attention will turn to what leaders can do to support their learners’ mental health.

Collectively, the webinars will give an overview of how Further Education can implement a culture change from the top down, using a trauma-informed, whole-organisation approach. Participants will acquire an understanding of different leadership strategies relating to mental health and wellbeing, be able to use those strategies to support staff and learners and have the tools to affect cultural change.

Anju Virdee, Interim ETF National Head of Leadership Development, said:

“In recent years the importance of individuals’ mental health and wellbeing has become more widely acknowledged and understood. Challenges such as social isolation, anxiety about world events, and increasingly severe financial challenges– as well as the sector-specific difficulties facing the FE and Training sector – have all contributed to the issues we face.

“Leaders in the sector have responsibilities to themselves, their staff and their learners, and this webinar series will look at what they can practically do to support them. We hope the sessions will help prepare participants to meet the challenges ahead, adding to their leadership skill sets and reinforcing the sector’s capacity to deal with adversity.”

There is no charge to attend the webinars and places can be booked via the ETF’s booking system.

The webinars are part of a wider range of support for leaders offered by the ETF, which includes courses and resources. For full details, please visit the leadership page of the ETF website.