Career development for young staff

Personal Career and Development

Take a look at the Talent Portal of the UG. In the Talent Portal, you can find tips and advice on questions such as:

Is my present job still the right one for me? Are there opportunities for furthering my personal and career development at the University of Groningen? How can I boost my motivation?

The tools on the Talent Portal webpage will help you to identify the driving factors behind your approach to work (what do I want?) and your competences (what am I good at?). It will also highlight the available options at the UG and elsewhere for improving and developing your skills.

Note that YoungRUG also organizes an annual mentor programme, together with HR, where you can get a mentor (or become a mentor yourself) who will coach you for approximately half a year. A mentor is a senior colleague, who shares his/her/them experiences with you about a variety of work topics, tailored to your specific needs.

Take a look at the upcoming events to see when the next mentor programma event(s) will take place!

Courses and training programmes

Corporate Academy is the UG's course and training platform.

The UG wants its staff to continue to develop their skills. This is a key theme of the strategic plan. The assumption here is that you take responsibility for your own professional development and career. Find out about all the courses, possibilities and providers within the UG at the Corporate Academy website.

Development days

Every employee is entitled to 2 development days per year. You can use these days to enhance your employability. These days are not considered as leave. Agreements on how to use your development days can be laid down in your portfolio. For more information, you can consult article 6.10 in the Collective Labour Agreement.

Training regulations

The UG sets great store by training programmes to ensure continued performance in your current position or in preparation for a next step in your career. All University staff are entitled to training. They can submit proposals themselves and, in addition, the manager or the organization can also offer its employees training programmes, for example if needed in order to perform the job properly. Such training programmes can be made compulsory.

There are two types of training:

• For the benefit of the current position or a new position that the employee will take up in the future. The costs of such training are fully reimbursed by the employer and the training can be followed during working hours.
• In preparation for a new position that fits in with the employee’s career prospects if agreements have been made to this effect. Half of the costs of such training must be paid by the employee him or herself. The Faculty Board or management will decide how many working hours the employee may spend on such training. A maximum of one day a week is generally granted.

Travel and accommodation costs will be fully reimbursed by the University of Groningen for both types of training.

If you have any questions, please contact the HR-Experts training advisors: Silvia Huisman (s.huisman@rug.nl) or Ruth van de Walle (r.k.van.der.walle@rug.nl), or send an email to hr-experts@rug.nl.

Training courses and education

It is important to the UG that staff members have the possibility to develop themselves. To this end, the University offers a wide range of courses that staff members can take.

On the website of the Corporate Academy , you can find courses that fit your needs. HR-Experts, CIT and the Language Centre offer a wide range of courses on their website. You can find more detailed descriptions about courses on the following webpages:

HR information session

In these slides used during the YoungRUG HR session, you will find information regarding leave hours and the employment option model:

Sabbatical Leave

Sabbatical leave is a type of extraordinary leave. It usually concerns a longer period of leave, during which you pay attention to your employability (career development).

When sabbatical leave is granted, you and your employer will at least make agreements about how the leave will be spent, how long it will last, whether or not your salary will continue to be paid, pension premiums and whether you will use vacation hours you have saved for part of the leave period. For more information, you can consult article 4.16a in the Collective Labour Agreement.

Flexibel working week (article 5.6 and attachment G cao NU)

The standard working hours for a full-time employment contract are 38. A full-time appointment (100%) thus formally means a working week of 38 hours. A full working day (usually 8.5 hours including a break) must include a lunch or other break of at least half an hour.

Within the framework of the Terms of Employment Options Model , you can choose to have a 36 or 40-hour working week. If you choose a 40-hour working week, thus work for 2 hours more a week, you are entitled to 96 extra vacation hours. If you choose a 36-hour working week, thus work for 2 hours less than the standard working hours, your annual entitlement to vacation hours will be reduced by 96 hours. This applies to part-timers on a pro rata basis.

BALANS

BALANS is the lifestyle programme of the Health, Safety and Environment Service (AMD) of the University of Groningen. The programme is for all staff of the University of Groningen (with the exception of the medical faculty) and stimulates a healthy lifestyle for employees.

BALANS has developed a wide range of activities, mindfulness, yoga, health checks and coping with stress. The activities take a range of forms, from information sessions, workshops and introductory courses to individual consultations and stimulating lectures.

Sports Association for staff members (SPR)

The Sports Assocation for University of Groningen and Hanze University Staff (SPR ) aims to 'promote fellowship, development and recreation in the widest sense of the word’ through sports.