René Koglbauer
Dean of Lifelong Learning and Professional Practice
In this new role, René aims to utilise the facilities and knowledge of Newcastle University to help businesses, organisations and individuals develop new, life-enhancing skills.
“We want to develop a coherent strategy for Lifelong Learning and Continuous Professional Development activities,” he says. “That means bringing our research and scholarship expertise together and creating new opportunities and offers for our outside partners.
"This includes companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities who want to develop the skills of their employees. We will also look at how Lifelong Learning could shape the development of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as the new Degree and Masters’ Apprenticeship courses.”
René wants to create demand-led offers after talking to existing and new stakeholders about their needs.
Newcastle is very positive and interested in people’s professional development.
“What exactly do regional and global companies and individuals want when it comes to continuing professional development?” he says. “We’ve already identified areas of need such as engineering, executive education and leadership skills.
"We will look at whether we need to alter some of our Masters’ courses, create new modules or develop distance learning and blended programmes to meet the demand. Also, how can our facilities such as the Institute of Coding or the National Innovation Centres help?”
René wants to build on Newcastle’s existing commitment to wider society both regionally and nationally. “We aim to make a difference by developing higher level skills,” he says.
“Learning enhances life opportunities and improves people’s everyday experience in their workplace.”
Promoting these benefits has been a fundamental part of René’s career. He recalls working as a postgraduate student for a further education institution in Austria helping refugees from the former Yugoslavia.
“It was an enhancing skills course where they had to learn German to both live and survive in their new country,” he explains. “I realised how important learning new skills could be to individuals and society overall.”
René came to Newcastle University in 2010 as a member of the initial teacher training team after 10 years in secondary education.
His current roles include Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences and Executive Director of the North Leadership Centre with a focus on leadership development for schools, NGOs and companies.
“Newcastle is very positive and interested in people’s professional development.” says René. “It also encourages you to be innovative and collaborative.”