Executive Sponsor
Your executive sponsor should be the Chief Executive or an Executive Director in your organisation, their supporting comments are mandatory and an important part of your application. The programme is committed to supporting you to be proactive in developing the Executive Sponsor relationship. If you are unsure about your Executive Sponsor please discuss with your line manager who this should be.
Role of the Sponsor
The role of Executive Sponsor is an integral part of the programme. The support and mentorship at executive level will be key to your success on the programme. It will support you in meeting your studying commitments, provide access to senior leadership, enhance your personal development, enable the translation of your learning into the workplace and encourage career opportunities to bring digital talent into the senior leadership pipeline across Scotland.
As the executive sponsor an essential requirement of the funding provision is a commitment to providing the following support to the applicant:
- Adequate time for study
- Time to attend the learning sessions required by the programme
- Regular mentoring support
- Access to senior leadership and open doors to enable progress of workplace projects
- Support objectives of workplace projects, including assisting in managing challenges or resistance from stakeholders if required
- Hold to account for demonstrating translation of learning into practice for the benefit of the organisation and/or wider system
- Regularly document participants progress and impact through their engagement and contribution in the programme
- Considering succession planning opportunities and advocates for promotions where appropriate to bring digital talent into the senior leadership pipeline
Other support Networks
There are also benefits to developing and building a broad range of support and networks. This could be a peer mentor, adviser or someone else with specialist knowledge or skills who works in your organisation or sector, or someone who is out with these confines. The programme will support you to be proactive in developing and building your networks across the wider sector.