Programme Overview
Strengthening and Sustaining Wellbeing Champions
in Universities and HE Providers
The Higher Education Wellbeing Champion Programme is a sector-specific development pathway designed to support and strengthen existing wellbeing champions within universities and higher education providers.
Rather than introductory training, this programme focuses on deepening capability, consistency, and sustainability for colleagues already carrying wellbeing, pastoral, or support responsibilities.
Delivered through four quarterly, in-person development days, the programme provides structured support, skill development, and peer learning aligned to the realities of the higher education environment.
Why this programme is
important in Higher Education
Higher education institutions are operating under sustained pressure: increased workload, funding constraints, regulatory scrutiny, and ongoing organisational change. These pressures are reflected in rising staff stress, burnout, and disengagement across academic and professional services roles. While many institutions have invested in wellbeing strategies, Champions often operate without sufficient structure or ongoing support, creating risk to both individuals and the institution.
This programme addresses that risk by supporting Champions to operate safely, confidently, and sustainably, strengthening institutional wellbeing capacity without adding further burden.
Who the Programme is for
Designed for:
Existing Wellbeing Champions
Mental Health First Aiders seeking progression and support
Academic and professional services staff with pastoral responsibilities
HR, EDI, and people teams
Line managers with formal or informal wellbeing oversight
What is Included
Delivery Format (12-Month Programme)
The programme is delivered across four quarterly, in-person development days, hosted on campus or at a central location. Each day builds progressively, allowing learning to be applied between sessions.
Outcomes for Institutions
Institutions benefit from:
- Better supported and more confident wellbeing champions
- Reduced risk of Champion burnout
- Greater consistency in wellbeing practice
- Alignment with OfS expectations, EDI priorities, and staff wellbeing strategies
- A sustainable, embedded approach to staff wellbeing
Investment
Contact champion@illuminare-executiveeducation.com for a bespoke quotation
Includes:
- 4 in-person development days across 12 months
- Structured progression and peer learning
- Practical tools aligned to HE environments
- Group and in-house delivery options are available
- The Wellbeing Champion Programme can be tailored for in-house delivery.
The Wellbeing Champion Programme can be tailored for in-house delivery.
On completion of each in-person training day, Wellbeing Champions will be awarded with a CPD Certificate of Achievement (6 CPD points for each day).
Stronger Together
Change happens when you support your people and move forward together. That belief sits at the heart of everything we do. Illuminare Executive Education and Tonic Wellbeing have joined forces to create the Wellbeing Champion Programme – a collaboration grounded in over 20 years of combined expertise in leadership, education, and clinical wellbeing. While the programme itself has been in design for nearly twelve months, its foundations were built through decades of real-world experience – seeing how workplace wellbeing has evolved, understanding what’s missing, and knowing what truly works in practice.
The Wellbeing Champion Programme was created to meet a growing need: not only to equip individuals to respond effectively to mental health challenges, but to prepare them to live and lead well. It empowers participants to influence culture, shape conversations, and embed proactive wellbeing within the organisations they lead and serve.
Wellbeing is the foundation of all performance. Together, Illuminare and Tonic Wellbeing combine executive education with clinical insight, bringing together specialists who have coached, trained, and supported leaders and teams across sectors worldwide. The result is a new kind of corporate wellbeing community, one that is positive, evidence-informed, future-focused, and built around sustainable human performance.
Why choose Illuminare Executive Education?
Illuminare Executive Education was founded to meet the needs of global corporations and professionals who appreciate and demand high-quality education and services that the UK Higher Education sector is renowned for. Here at Illuminare Executive Education, we provide it in ways that are easy to access, agile to engage with, and applied in delivery.
We are proud that our founders and team are all leading UK academics and practitioners. Our programmes are all designed to the same quality standards that UK Universities adhere to. For many years we have successfully designed, validated, and delivered new and existing UK university programmes (degrees, apprenticeships, short courses, and executive education) to meet market demand, and we continue to provide advisory services on curricular modifications to ensure they reflect the changing needs of the global market.
We bring you our knowledge, skills, experience and support through provision of our own university endorsed globally recognised programmes, business services and executive coaching. As a mark of our high-quality provision, all our programmes are available with UK university certification and / or CPD certification on request.
Our team have extensive experience of working in and with organisations from around the world and will bring you the latest research, teaching and learning combined with the most current global professional practice, in ways that work for you and your organisation.
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