The Wenite team, led by powerhouse Jennifer Dominic has created a careers development course ‘Wenite Academy’ aimed at providing mentorship, strategic networking, and hands-on skills through expert-led sessions and interactive workshops for both early career individuals and professionals. During their pilot year TCIM met with the organisers and observed a few of the sessions.
Career development comes in various formats and outputs. We are encouraged to network and plan the next steps after graduation. Oftentimes university-led career events can give you a sense of understanding of some pathways but due to their scale may not be as intimate and nurturing when taking the first steps.Coming from the field of life sciences with varying outcomes on career pathways, your options are essentially endless and career planning for multiple outcomes becomes essential. The Wenite Academy caters to two sets of people:
- Early career graduates and
- Professionals looking to pivot into another field
The sessions were designed for participants to feel a real sense of reassurance through guided practice and feedback sessions. Session leaders utilise content from Wenite to emphasise on the range of resources already available, reinforcing the importance of knowing how to maximise information freely available on the internet.They also come from a range of STEM fields, with the pilot focusing on clinical research and the new programme tailored to the career aspirations of our selected cohort.
The organisers and participants of the pilot phase of the programme had a few things to say about the programme here :
Q:How do you show up as your best self for the Academy ?
A: As a team team were quickly able to see consistency in attendance and engagement with the prompts from group chats to live sessions flowed over to the performance in mock interviews and willingness to engage with the programme.
Having observed the networking and discussion through the programme the most unique standpoint was the use of the group chat to encourage all participants to reflect on the information shared in the sessions. This level of dedication from a team isn’t something you can find easily in career spaces ! An informal space to connect with participants and potentially form strong connections for your career. It’s been widely said networking across with peers has huge benefits for the transformation of your career alongside networking higher up. The advantage of peer support is the shared aims and goals and as you grow, you grow together !
After attending many sessions, mock interviews closed out the academy. Participants were encouraged to show up and prepare a presentation on an industry of interest to be assessed by matched experts from that industry.
Q: What did you gain from the mock interviews?
Chimidi: how to showcase and present yourself to people
Layla : detailed feedback to be used in the future
Buchi: helped me see where I was lacking and tips on how to improve
Angel: presenting everything and helped me with my nerves on some things
An extremely underrated skill is the ability to sell yourself in detail and something that is rarely practised. The uniqueness of the Wentite academy is that these sessions are NOT job specific but tailored to your interests. This means you can utilise the skills learnt to other sectors in case you change your mind after the session! In a world where there is a lot of ‘how to guides’ with little substance. A space with dedicated professionals really makes the difference !
Q:How would you manage the commitment ?
A: There is commitment involved and you are encouraged to attend the live session to network with attendees but sessions are recorded which allow flexibility for busy schedules !
For those that may be overwhelmed and need time to process and properly reflect, this added detail was really important to participants !
WeNite can be used as a stepping stone to answer those ‘what next?’ steps in your career and allow you to feel more prepared at whatever stage you find yourself at !
It is a paid course and you can enrol for the next cohort here: https://www.wenite.co.uk/academy There are different payment plans and recommendations on how to get funding on their website !
TCIM 
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