Women face more challenges as they rise through the ranks in their careers, including getting promoted to leadership positions, according to the McKinsey report and the LeanIn study.
The Women’s Professional Development (CFG1500) course is designed to provide year 2, 3 and 4 female undergraduate students with the knowledge and skills to succeed as a female in the workplace.
Students will have the opportunity to put their new skills into practice through the experiential group project and skills-focused training workshops conducted via e-learning and in person. Students will also be mentored by senior female leaders and engage in peer learning through experiential activities.
Receive exclusive mentorship
by a female leader
Design an initiative to solve workplace challenges faced by women
Acquire skills to accelerate your professional advancement
Course Details & Registration
Course Units: 2 Units, Unrestricted Elective (UE) Course
Assessment and Grading Basis: CS/CU
Pre-requisites: Year 2, 3 and 4 female undergraduate students
Schedule: Semester 1 of AY2023/2024
Mode of Enrolment: You may register for this course by filling your details in the registration form (sign up by 10 July 2023). You will receive an email on about your registration status on the week beginning 17 July 2023.
- Please note that only limited places per faculty are available and we will not be able to offer all interested participants a place.
- We will take your preferred industry of a mentor into consideration. However, if you are unsuccessful for your first preference, we may consider you for your second preference (subject to availability).
For any questions on this course, please e-mail lndcfg@nus.edu.sg and attention it to Camilla or Cecilia.
Session 1: Build Awareness on the Barriers Women Face in the Workplace
Understand the phenomenon of the ‘broken rung’ where fewer women reach the first level of management than men. Students will appreciate the complexities and various reasons why the broken rung exists including four common types of biases, self-stereotyping, network, communication styles, and career aspirations.
Session 2: Group Design Challenge Part 1, Discover & Define
Apply the principles of design-thinking to ideate on an initiative related to the problem statement based on the experiences of the mentor and her career journey.
Session 3: Group Design Challenge Part 2, Develop
Take part in a guided process to develop initial ideas into a concept that will accelerate the advancement of women in their early careers.
Session 4: Can You Have It All?
Panel discussion with female leaders to gain insights on how they manage multiple roles in their professional and personal lives, followed by small group discussions facilitated by the mentors.
Session 5: Build a Powerful Presence as a Woman
Interactive session with young female alumni on developing a professional presence for career advancement.
Session 6: Group Design Challenge Part 3, Pitching Day
Students will get to pitch their project ideas and network with all mentors.
Workload
CFG1500 is an 8-week long course structured around six lessons and delivered in an e-learning and face to face workshops format.
There is no examination for this course.
Assessment Instructions for Students
Grading Components:
| Assessment Task |
Assessment Weightage |
Submission of Group Project - Submission of experience diagram (10%)
- Submission of concept board (10%)
- Submission of presentation slide and pitch deck (20%)
- Pitching & final presentation (20%)
|
60% |
| Completion of e-learning (Session 1) |
10% |
| In Class Participation (Session 4 & Session 5) |
30% |
| Total Course Score |
100% |
Passing Criteria for CFG1500:
CFG1500 is graded on a CS/CU basis. Submission and completion of all the following assessment components is compulsory to secure a CS grade in this course.
To pass this course, there will be 2 components that you are required to fulfil.
1. Assessments
- Submission and completion of all assessment components is compulsory to pass the course.
2. Attendance Requirement
- All students must maintain at least 80% of classroom attendance (4 out of 5 live workshops).
- The student should not have a percentage of attendance less than 80% without any valid reason.
What our students say
“It always motivates me to meet other empowering and compassionate women leaders. I would like to thank the organisers of the wonderful WPD that has been thoughtfully designed to develop young women holistically. It taught me how to take charge of my emotions, tools to navigate ambiguity and complexity, and broadened my perspective on the power of positive psychology and language.”
Cherie Lim, Business, Class of 2022
“I am deeply grateful for WPD for connecting me not just to like-minded peers, but also to wonderful mentors whose every action and careful sharing of their lives and stories have taught me many life skills. WPD has shown me how I can think about navigating the working world as a young woman and not be afraid of the challenges that will come my way. One day, I too hope to give back to young women and men when I have navigated my way through life."
Loh An Lin, Arts & Social Sciences, Year 2 Student
What our mentors say
“It was a great experience to share my career journey with a group of passionate female students as part of the Women's Professional Development (WPD) course. As an NUS Science alumna turned Marketer, I shed light on my career switch journey and how good mentorship enabled me to embark on my dream. It was insightful to hear students sharing their career challenges as well as aspirations. That gave me insights to better support my mentees and young team members as well. Due to its good engagement, I decided to contribute more of my time to the course and I look forward to being part of more students’ growth journeys!”
Alice Yu, Partners and Industry Marketing Lead, NCS Group
"It was great to be invited back to my alma mater to facilitate a Design Thinking workshop for the Women’s Professional Development course. It was a wonderful session seeing over 30 students solve a real world problem they can relate to. The students were equipped with design thinking tool kits and the critical thinking skills that they could bring to their new organisations when they graduated. It was a practical session that went beyond the academic curriculum.”
Adeline Tiah, Leadership & REINVENT Coach at Soar Global, Author