Session Outline

It is often invisible and seemingly undervalued, yet the role of the personal tutor plays a fundamental role in the retention and progression of our students.

Personal tutoring/Academic Advising is often seen as an ‘add-on’ to the ‘important’ roles of research and teaching and as a result, this lack of recognition, can leave us feeling under-appreciated and with a sense of isolation. We will explore how, in trying to address this by developing a supportive community, we identified, and addressed, a gap in training provision for personal tutors.

Through this workshop we will explore the process utilised in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the initial pilot programme for Personal tutor training, how this has evolved over the past 3 years, as well as sharing the impact this has had on personal tutors who have engaged in the programme.

The design followed consultation with key stakeholders and results of staff surveys to inform the design. We explore how we used the resulting data to identify the emerging key themes and how those reflected those found in literature.

We explore the challenges and the triumphs and through the lively interactive session, explore how this practice could be developed to suit other institutional landscapes. It offers an opportunity to engage in discussions around existing programmes and share how to identify and overcome potential challenges.