York Strengths Development Sessions
Discover your skills and strengths!
Our sector-leading York Strengths Development Sessions enable you to discover your skills and strengths - the things you are good at and you love to do - through enjoyable group activities, and with support and feedback from a professional facilitator.
York Strengths Development Sessions are available to all first-year undergraduate students and are integrated into the first-year modules of many departments.
Open sessions
If you don’t have a development session scheduled in your timetable or are unable to attend your allocated session, you can join one of our open sessions. Here are the available dates:
Week 3, Wednesday 26 February 2025 pm
Week 6, Wednesday 19 March 2025 pm
These sessions will open for booking on Handshake at the start of Semester 2 (search 'strengths' in the events search field).
Please do not book more than one session. This takes up a place that might be needed by other students and makes it harder to forecast the numbers likely to actually attend on any particular day.
Despite being an introvert, I found it easy to open up to my peers thanks to the welcoming atmosphere and the fun activities. You'll have an enjoyable time!
York Strengths Development Session participant, 2024
A Development Session lasts about three hours, and is supported by the content in York Strengths Online.
You'll have the opportunity to work with others, and get support from a professional facilitator in a supportive environment.
The session will give you a broader understanding of the transferable or professional skills required for success in graduate-level work and will also support you in your university journey. You'll leave with a greater sense of your skills and strengths and with tools to help you in managing your professional development.
If your academic department has integrated York Strengths Development Sessions into your first year modules, you will see a session appear in your timetable. It's important that you attend this session, and you will receive further information from your department and by email nearer the time.
Confirmation of attendance is essential for all Development Sessions where they are part of your course and appear in your timetable.
In the 2024/25 academic year, the following departments have sessions integrated into core modules. These sessions are only open to students who have them in their timetable.
Semester 1
Week 6 - w/c 4 November 2024
- Computer Science
- Language and Linguistic Science
Semester 2
Week 1 - w/c 10 February 2025
- Chemistry
Week 2 - w/c 17 February 2025
- Music
- Physics
- Engineering
- Electronic Engineering
- Psychology
Week 3 - w/c 24 February 2025
- Politics
- Physics
- Biology
- Maths
Week 4 - w/c 3 March 2025
- Environment and Geography
Week 6 - w/c 17 March 2025
- Economics
- Archaeology
Week 9 - w/c 21 April 2025
- History
Week 10 - w/c 28 April 2025
- Health Sciences (Nursing)
Week commencing 19 May 2025
- Health Sciences (Midwifery)
It's really important that you make a commitment to attending when you register or confirm your place. If you find out you can no longer attend, please cancel your registration via Handshake as soon as you know.
Because these sessions are facilitated in smaller groups, we plan staffing levels for expected attendance. That can be a wasted resource that could have been allocated elsewhere if you change your mind and do not let us know that you are no longer attending.
Sometimes sickness or emergencies mean that you won't be able to come along, and won't know that until the day of the event - that's quite understandable. If this happens to you then it's really helpful if you can email york-strengths
The Development Sessions run as morning or afternoon sessions each lasting about three hours.
- You'll work in a small groups in a seminar room. You'll work with the same small group for the whole session.
- Your facilitator will take you through a series of interactive activities, which help to identify your skills and strengths. You won’t be compared to anyone else, there’s no pass or fail, and the focus is entirely on identifying the positive indicators of your skills and strengths.
- You'll then consider what you’ve discovered about yourself, how you can harness opportunities available to you at the University, and plan your next steps.
- There are breaks through the session (with free snacks!) and the water fountains in the building will be operating to top up water bottles (please bring your own).
Students who have previously attended Development Sessions have found it helpful to access York Strengths Online for an introduction to the programme before attending. This isn't essential, but can help particularly if you prefer to have a little more time to process new information.
If you are attending a Development Session you can also use York Strengths Online to support your ongoing learning. It includes high quality discovery exercises and a range of additional resources to help you carry out a self-assessment of your skills and strengths, explore skillsets further, describe your skills and strengths to others, and plan your next steps.
York Strengths Online provides an alternative to the Development Session for those who are unable to attend, or for students not in their first year of undergraduate study. The York Strengths Development Sessions provide an enhanced opportunity to explore your strengths in more depth, with interaction and feedback from others, and with the support of a professional facilitator.
Yes! We are really keen to make sure this event is as accessible and inclusive as possible, and that everyone has a positive experience when they attend. We work hard to make this happen, involving specialists in inclusive learning design, and consulting with students.
We can make reasonable adjustments to help you get the most out of the day (relating to a disability, physical or mental health condition, or neurodiversity). You can notify us of this when you confirm your attendance or register on Handshake for your session.
A quiet space is available at the York Strengths Development Session if you need to take a break, and staff are available to offer support if needed.
If you have any questions, concerns or would just like to talk through what's involved in more detail, then please email york-strengths
If there are strong reasons why you believe the York Strengths Development Session isn't appropriate for you or you can't attend, please let us know by emailing the address above and we can explore your reasons and potential alternatives for you (and your department where sessions are delivered as part of a module).