By working with us, clients can leverage cross‑disciplinary expertise drawn from all UTS faculties, our industry partners and our global network of experts. They gain access to our ever‑growing curated library of upskilling modules ready to be tailored to any client context.
PLUS UTS Business Futures provides flexible, fast and cost-effective ways for clients to engage with us and meet their upskilling needs.
Who we work with
We have demonstrated partnerships within the public and private sectors providing lifelong learning pathways through agile, innovative learning design and delivery.
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ACCIONA
At PLUS UTS Business Futures, we are dedicated to working with our clients in close partnership to design and deliver upskilling programs that create immediate and sustainable impact on their leaders as well as the organisation as a whole.
Our collaboration with ACCIONA exemplifies our commitment to helping organisations upskill their talent and create a positive learning and innovation culture.
ACCIONA, a global leader in regenerative infrastructure and renewable energy, partnered with PLUS UTS Business Futures to design and deliver a series of upskilling programs for their middle managers and senior leaders to support them as they face new challenges and opportunities in an increasingly dynamic and complex industry context.
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The program was designed to provide a holistic understanding of the upskilling needs of the participants and to align their development across levels, projects, geographies and business units.
It included a combination of in-person interactive workshops, personality assessments, the design and administration of a customised 360 assessment, coaching and development sessions and work-relevant tasks and strategic projects enabling participants to put the tools and techniques from the program into practice.
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By completing these tasks and projects, participants developed improvement ideas for the business resulting in a series of initiatives that created long-lasting impact.
The collaboration between PLUS UTS Business Futures and ACCIONA has led to some exceptional outcomes. The program has empowered Acciona's teams with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead in the ever-changing infrastructure sector, to create positive team culture and to develop an inquiring mindset to drive continuous improvement.
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Andrew Marsonet, Project Director – Acciona:
I think for Acciona to have the Future Leaders Program running across the business is a sign of how seriously Acciona takes leadership and is looking forward into the future to develop its leaders.
Chris Pracy, Manager, Training and Development – Acciona:
The intent of having a Future Leaders Program running across the business, it's about giving them contemporary, consistent leadership practise with a really sound understanding of our business strategy so that they are ready to take on the challenges of the future.
Andrew Marsonet, Project Director – Acciona:
What I'm hoping for, for leaders now and in the future, is really that they get a better understanding of themselves, a better understanding of how they operate, how they can influence, but at the same time, learning how to get the best out of their people and out of themselves. This is really the crux of leadership. The people leading the program here at UTS are amazing people. They're right on the cutting edge of leadership technology.
Chris Pracy, Manager, Training and Development – Acciona:
I was fortunate to be involved in the co-design of the program with Natalia and her team. We intentionally reached out to UTS because of their reputation for that strong connection with industry, and they have been fantastic. The
Simone Wetzlar, Leadership & Culture Coach – Acciona:
Collaboration between Acciona and the UTS on this program has been amazing. We have worked so well as a team. Nothing has been a problem. It's been an absolute delight to work with UTS.
Audrey Gosling, Finance Manager – Acciona:
The program's fantastic. It's really organic. The presenters are really passionate about what they do, and that really translate into the course content. The coaching sessions have been really valuable because it's a way to reflect on what you've done and what you could do better. What people have told me is that have actually changed after participating in this course.
Daniel Washburn, Systems Integration & Operational Readiness Manager – Acciona:
The impact of the program, it's given me better understanding of leadership versus management. In the past, I was focused a lot more on managing my team than being a leader for my team. It's given me a better perspective on how I integrate with the broader group in the project.
Gavin Reymond, Group Head of Strategy & Transformation – Acciona:
So I think the importance of developing our people and retaining them so that we've got a core of future leaders that can take the business into the next phase.
Chris Pracy, Manager, Training and Development – Acciona:
Our feedback has been really positive. We are bringing people from all over the country. The ability to make those connections to network, to have a critical phone-a-friend is an added bonus to the academic content that's being delivered.
Simone Wetzlar, Leadership & Culture Coach – Acciona:
My hopes for the people on the program is that they can reach their full potential as leaders and they can pass on what they learned to the teams underneath them, and that by doing this right across the Acciona business, that we'll get a common language and a common understanding about modern leadership.
Andrew Marsonet, Project Director – Acciona:
I believe that this program will create a quantum leap in the leadership performance of all of the team members that go through the program.
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Transport for NSW
Transport for NSW (TfNSW) embarked on a transformative journey to address the evolving needs of the transport landscape, recognizing that the next decade will witness more change than the past 50 years.
In collaboration with PLUS UTS Business Futures, TfNSW undertook an 18-month partnership to innovate and enhance leadership capabilities. This resulted in the development of a flexible and modular Certificate IV in Leadership and Management tailored to TfNSW's strategic vision.
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The program, completed by 300 participants, received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 98.8% acknowledging the relevance of the content.
The success of the program stems from an agile and adaptive approach, incorporating learning needs analysis, co-design workshops, and continuous collaboration. The partnership between TfNSW and PLUS UTS Business Futures embraced a deeply collaborative culture, fostering transparency and the open exchange of ideas.
The program's structure allows participants to choose a personalized learning journey, completing all 12 units for the Certificate or selecting standalone modules for rapid skills uplift.
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This approach aligns with TfNSW's goal of not only delivering a flagship leadership program but also offering units separately to cater to specific upskilling needs.
The co-designed Certificate IV equips leaders with state-of-the-art learning methods, including learner guides, eLearning modules, peer group and 1:1 leader sessions, facilitated workshops, train-the-trainer workshops, and work-relevant assessments.
The success of this collaboration not only lies in the quality of the program but also in the continuous improvement achieved through the collaborative sharing of knowledge and insights between the two teams.
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TESTIMONIAL
"Together with UTS, Transport has delivered a leadership development program that is providing our front-line and new-to-leadership team members with opportunities to build foundational leadership capability that maps to a Certificate IV in Leadership & Management.
"Throughout our journey, we learned from each other through both the subject matter and our ways of working. Our relationship matured from a client/service provider to strategic partnership and enabler.
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"The team at UTS demonstrate high integrity and a steadfast commitment to deliver on the agreed outcomes and worked with us when our Transport context experienced change.
"Overall our experience was valuable and we achieved the intended outcomes together."
Peter LePage, Director Learning Strategy,
People and Culture, Transport for NSW -
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John Holland Infrastructure
We partnered with John Holland Infrastructure on the design and delivery of an upskilling program for their leaders which aims to develop their leadership and business skills, experience and networks and prepare them to address strategic challenges and opportunities. We designed an immersive program including in-person workshops, state-of-the-art e-learning, coaching and mentoring and peer learning. Through the design of work-integrated tasks, learning activities and projects focused on solving complex organisational issues, the program develops a range of skills including adaptive leadership, strategic problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication and presentation skills. We have since delivered the same program for a second cohort of John Holland Infrastructure as well as John Holland Building & John Holland Rail & Transport.
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Natalia Nikolova:
So this program is designed for John Holland's infrastructure future leaders, so leaders who have been identified as emerging and having high potential to take on future roles in leading projects or functional units.
The program focuses on a couple of key areas of development. One is their leadership skills. So starting with self leadership, understanding better their strengths and capabilities as a leader and how they can further improve. And then taking them on the journey of how can they better lead adaptive teams, so around team leadership. And then focusing on their role as strategic leaders. So what is their contribution to the strategy of John Holland infrastructure and John Holland more generally and how can they contribute to achieving John Holland's vision, mission and goals?
Margaret Riley:
We saw this as a key plank of our retention and attraction strategy. There was a real gap in our leadership program. We were very keen to find our top talent in our business and grow those individuals into the future leaders of our business. This program absolutely makes those team members match fit for the future challenges that our business will be facing.
What I observe is the level of enthusiasm. Everybody has been really enthusiastic. Every challenge and opportunity has been really generously received by every person who's participated. And that's not just the participants themselves. I include the participants who have been the leadership team from our business unit as well. So all of those people have benefited. They've met new people, they've learnt more broadly around our business and they've been able to directly contribute to some of our key strategic challenges.
Natalia was fantastic, really great to work with, very accessible, full of great ideas, really energetic and enthusiastic and hugely passionate about what she does in adult education. When you've got that level of enthusiasm, it's really infectious, and I really saw that being translated and transmitted into our team. And I think that's part of the strength of the program.
Madalena Pereira Ribeiro:
I meet a lot of people from John Holland because I usually work in the project, so I don't have that much contact with people from actually the business because I work in alliance. So for me, the best part is be able to be a part of John Holland and meet people from other projects as well.
Laura Evans:
In an organization we look at different horizons within the business from shorter term to longer term. One of the reasons I wanted to join this program was to understand more of the longer term strategy and setting the longer term vision for what we do and how we go about things. So given some of the tools that we've learned and the approaches to take to look at some of that longer term strategy, I'll use some of that now in what I'm doing as opposed to looking at my day to day and how we can make changes to the way we go about things for the approach in the future.
Tom Ryzak:
It'll make me think more strategically instead of delving down into the detail. As a leader, to develop as a leader, you need to have that strategic oversight. The tools and the processes that I've learned on this program have enabled me to grow in that space.
Natalia Nikolova:
So co-design is extremely important in order for us to be able to provide a program that is fully customized to the needs and expectations of our learners. So for the ability of participants to apply what they're learning in our programs, we spent a lot of time, a lot of focus effort on co-designing the program with our clients. So what we do is we really go into a deep design thinking, exploration process, understanding who our clients, who is the audience, what are their needs, and what stages of their development are they, where do they want to go, and how can we best support them. So what are the key areas of improvement they need to focus on? And also what are the specific tools and techniques we can introduce to them so they actually can become better leaders, better at what they do?
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UTS Women's Career Confidence: Re-employment Pathways Program
In collaboration with the National Careers Institute and key industry partners, we developed an innovative digital marketing program designed to help women looking to return to work after taking time off for caring responsibilities. The program connects women with leading marketing experts from the UTS Business School, award-winning digital marketing agencies, seasoned industry experts and career and developmental coaches to guide them through a seven-month journey providing them with the career know-how, confidence and connections to break (back) into the digital marketing industry.
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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to The Futures Academy.
Speaker 2: Returning from a career break can be daunting.
Speaker 3: Our goals and desires can often shift and change.
Speaker 4: While reassessing our needs and responsibilities...
Speaker 5: ... we're also faced with readapting to the fast-paced, ever changing world of work.
Speaker 6: If you are looking for an opportunity to change an existing career...
Speaker 7: ... or build a new career, where do you start?
Speaker 1: It isn't easy. But the UTS Futures Academy has teamed with with industry partners and the National Careers Institute...
Speaker 8: ... to create a pathway to assist women...
Speaker 2: ... who are pursuing the important next step in their career development.
Speaker 7: If you are reinvigorating a career that's been on hold or focused on breaking new ground...
Speaker 3: ... then the UTS Futures Academy is here to help.
Speaker 6: Taking advantage of the experience and skills of our dedicated partners and participating employer groups...
Speaker 2: ... UTS is inviting 25 women...
Speaker 8: ... 25 women...
Speaker 5: ... 25 women to participate in a program...
Speaker 3: ... designed to build the career in digital marketing...
Speaker 8: ... as well as providing new technical skills required for digital marketing.
Speaker 1: The program will focus on providing coaching and networking opportunities...
Speaker 5: ... which will help our participants address the challenges ahead with confidence and success.
Speaker 3: And the successful participant can complete the course at no cost.
Speaker 1: No cost.
Speaker 2: No cost. We can even help with carer's cost.
Speaker 4: Learning sessions will take place between August 2022 and February 2023.
Speaker 6: We know you'll need flexibility, so we've designed a program that is flexible and adaptable to your needs.
Speaker 1: So you want to know more? To apply, go to womenscareerconfidence.com.au.
Speaker 7: We look forward to meeting you and working together...
Speaker 5: ... to help you build a fulfilling and exciting new career.
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NSW PSC
We partnered with the NSW Public Service Commission to deliver key aspects of the NSW Leadership Academy for over 350 senior public sector leaders (including executives and non-executive Aboriginal leaders).
We continue to work closely with the NSW Leadership Academy to design learning experiences that are aligned with the needs of each cohort and to ensure consideration of cultural sensitivities. These programs focus on leadership, strategic thinking and planning and human-centred design (HCD), and we have incorporated a range of learning experiences including immersive and experiential learning and group work on complex challenges.
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Reserve Bank of Australia
We partnered with the RBA to co-design and deliver a blended Digital Leadership program for a group of 60 leaders across IT and Corporate Services.
The aim of the program was to develop participants' leadership and complex problem-solving skills, and their ability to influence and drive change in an increasingly digital world. This was aligned with the RBA strategy to become a world-leading digital central bank.
To embed new skills and tools in their practice, participants in the program worked on a range of adaptive challenges including on complex strategic challenges developed with executive sponsors.
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NSW Department of Planning and Environment
We delivered a program on Strategic Problem Solving and Communication for Band 1 & 2 leaders from the Department of Planning and Environment.
The blended leadership program included e-learning, face-to-face workshops, group work and facilitation. Leaders worked on strategic challenges and presented solutions to these challenges to the program sponsor.
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TESTIMONIAL
"PDNSW called on UTS Business Futures to build its talent and capability to better respond to the increasingly complex and challenging environment in which it operates. Delivering great outcomes for the people of NSW requires effective critical thinking and problem-solving.
"PLUS UTS Business Futures were able to develop a program tailored to our unique needs and requirements. The content was engaging and directly applicable to our role delivering better use of government land and property."
Leon Walker, Deputy Secretary - Homes, Property and Development
Department of Planning and Environment -
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CBA Behavioural economics
The aim of this program was to embed behavioural science thinking across key roles that drive customer and business outcomes for CBA.
Participants were able to approach design from a different lens, using behavioural economics thinking and tools, to unpack problem spaces when addressing complex customer behaviours.
The program was co-designed with experts from CBA and consisted of eight modules with hybrid workshops.
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Participants worked in project groups on a live challenge with coaching provided by UTS academic experts. Outcomes from participants' work on the challenge were presented to senior stakeholders.
TESTIMONIAL
"It was practical and applicable to our day-to-day roles. The conversations and questions in the session can be applied directly into our roles"
Program participant
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CPA Australia
UTS Business School experts conducted a holistic review of CPA’s online Digital Finance modules and updated the modules based on the latest insights from research and business practice to meet CPA’s membership needs.
Our learning designers updated the instructional design to ensure the modules are engaging and developed practical activities aligned to the audience’s context.
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Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Ethical AI
In partnership with the Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion at UTS, and leading artificial intelligence experts across UTS Business School, Law, Communications and Engineering and IT, we developed a program with DFAT with a focus on ethical use of artificial intelligence for public sector service delivery in Southeast Asia.
The program targets senior public servants and government leaders in the Australia/Asia-Pacific region.
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Diversity Arts Australia Fair Play workshops
We designed and delivered a series of workshops facilitated by Prof Simon Darcy from UTS Business School on disability awareness for Diversity Arts Australia and their members.
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HKMU Leadership & Management Postgraduate Program
In partnership with UTS International, we put together a series of thought leadership workshops designed and delivered by experts from UTS Business school for a group of HKMU students as part of their study tour to UTS.
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Topics included leadership, design thinking, data analytics, behavioural economics and strategy. This program offered an immersive experience for the students and enabled them to interact with our academic experts.
"86% of participants agreed that their learning experiences in this program were interesting and engaging, while 82% agreed that they developed new skills and/or knowledge from the program."
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NSW Telco Authority
We partnered with the NSW Telco Authority to deliver a program to leaders from the agency with a focus on developing their strategic problem-solving and structured communication skills.
The highly experiential program enabled participants to apply a range of tools and techniques on real challenges relevant to their organisational context, and to develop ideas for potential solutions to strategic challenges.
It contributed to the development of a shared approach to addressing strategic challenges in the organisation.
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TESTIMONIAL
"The training was really useful and provided the team with a practical toolkit of techniques that we can apply directly to the complex problems we are tasked with solving in our work environment."
Alanna Linn
A/Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer
NSW Telco Authority
Department of Customer Service -
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Speaker 1:
The Strategic Problem Solving Program is designed for anybody who would like to improve their skills in addressing complex strategic challenges. So it is suitable really for emerging leaders, for experienced leaders, for teams who are looking for better ways to address complex challenges. This is something that everybody does, independent of their role or particular career or industry they're working in. It's a skill set that is relevant for everybody in any type of organization.
Speaker 2:
For my team, participating in this kind of program will really help Telco, both in terms of delivering its strategy, but also in terms of growing and uplifting internal capability. And I think it's really equally important from both things. It helps us deliver our work, but also helps make sure we have the kind of organization that we want to be, which is why we're focusing on making the training and the skills and the growth of our people as important as actually the work we do.
Speaker 1:
So the way we want to do it is by providing participants with the opportunity to apply the skills and the tools and techniques that we introduced them to straight away, as part of that learning experience. So, that means that we are co-designing the program with a client. We work with a client on defining strategic challenges, that the teams will then solve while they're undertaking the program. And we want to make it as realistic as possible, as close to their real working situation and context as possible.
Speaker 3:
So I think the course will helped me to build really good relationships across teams within the telecommunications authority and also within the team. And the reason why is it outlines a very clearly defined, but rigorous and scientific process to solve problems and to bring other people in on the journey to solve the problems, using their expertise, using a very efficient and effective manner, so they feel part of the solution. They feel like they're valued. And it's a win-win for everyone, because you get a better solution from tapping their expertise than if you didn't in the first place.
Speaker 4:
The key learning that I took away from this program was to pause and really think about the problem, before you jump into the solutions. And I think that this is something that we can implement really easily within our team quite quickly, when we go back into the office. After completing this program, the things that I would do differently are really using the tools and frameworks that I have learned at the appropriate time during the problem-solving phase.
Speaker 2:
I'd chosen this course, because it offered a really good mix of both design thinking and more traditional strategic problem-solving skills. And I think that's exactly what I want my team to be able to pull together and use.
Speaker 3:
Highly recommend the course to other people, because I think it will add a lot of value to their careers and also to the organization they're working for.
How we create impact
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When passion for Country meets passion for upskilling with impact: The Journey of the "Connect with Country"
Incorporating Acknowledgement of Country at a meeting or an event provides us with an opportunity to show respect for the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we are working.
Yet many of us have a limited understanding of this important practice and lack confidence that we are doing it correctly. This can diminish the power of the acknowledgement and the respect and appreciation we try to convey through it.
A new app called "Connect with Country" aims to address this issue.
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LEAD Program at UTS Empowers Emerging Leaders
The UTS Leadership, Excellence, Accelerated Development (LEAD) Program is an initiative developed by the People and Culture Unit at UTS in collaboration with PLUS UTS Business Futures.
Spearheaded by Professor Natalia Nikolova and a team of expert facilitators, the program aims to empower early and emerging leaders from across UTS by equipping them with essential leadership skills and practical tools and techniques enabling them to create positive change for their teams.
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