“An extremely attractive course, heavily focused on reflection, self-awareness and releasing the leader within us.” - Virginia Pérez

Virginia Pérez, architect and researcher, has enthusiastically taken on all the challenges she has faced during her academic and professional career – from her student days at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia right through to her current job. 

Virginia works in Barcelona and is in charge of designing, developing and implementing executive projects. In addition to carrying out these tasks, she is also part of the research team in the R&D department of her company. Both these roles demand that she has a complete picture of each situation and the resources available for it, as well as considerable self-management and people management skills. 

For this reason, Virginia needs the skills of negotiation and effective leadership to solve problems, optimise processes and improve the team's general well-being with the aim of achieving quality outcomes. In her constant quest for personal development, she enrolled in and received a scholarship for the first Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - London School of Economics negotiation and leadership course at the London School of Economics. There is no doubt this has been a positive and rewarding experience for her.

A platform focused on reflection and self-awareness

One of the things Virginia is grateful for, in her ongoing training in search of excellence, is the quality of the online negotiation course at the London School of Economics (LSE). It is one of the world's top business schools and is highly placed in many international rankings. 

In addition to being delivered by such a highly-regarded institution, the course uses the GetSmarter platform, which is also used for courses at other prestigious universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. This platform is designed to deliver an attractive course, focused on reflection and self-awareness, and understanding and releasing the leader within us. 

Virginia explains that this opportunity has involved setting out on a very challenging journey of personal development, which has had a huge impact on her personal and professional life.

Business transformation through leadership excellence

The training toolkit provided is, according to Virginia, immensely useful for team management in both the short and long term. The skills you learn are not only used to manage other people, but also help develop self-management, which is an extremely valuable skill for those in executive posts. 

Leadership excellence takes into account all the changes that constantly occur in the business environment and seeks conciliatory approaches that can contribute to a team's general well-being and avoid negative effects on the quality of results. For this reason, the course includes skills development in areas like emotional management and creativity in negotiation, which has the potential to lead to genuine transformations in the business environment. There are also modules that look at how culture, power and influence affect negotiation with the aim of understanding international negotiations.

All of these elements lead towards a very specific objective: training the women leaders of the future. Initiatives like Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - London School of Economics aim to achieve equality of opportunity in business management and executive positions.

The next generation of women leaders

Along with providing more theoretical knowledge about leadership, which, according to Virginia, has taught her how to manage highly complex situations, the course also plays a very important role in networking between women who – though they may be from different industries, cultures and have distinct objectives – all have one common goal: leadership. 

Virginia has noticed a huge impact on her personal development during this course, thanks to swapping experiences with the other women who make up this community. She highlights the fluid communication and the opportunity for further career development, as the most positive aspects of the course, along with the setting up of a Lean in Circle and the personal financial advice that the participants receive.

The aim of Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - London School of Economics is to train the next generation of women leaders. Virginia points out that the percentage of women in management positions remains low and this is something that will need plenty of work to change. As a woman, she says she frequently faces barriers in her professional career and it is much more difficult to overcome them without the necessary help. For that reason, she particularly appreciates the creation of these support networks between women, as they enable them to tackle these difficulties together.

She adds that, although the support networks are essential, the value of individual efforts should not be overlooked either. Ongoing training and excellence in education are powerful tools that can help overcome these barriers. 

Because of this, she encourages all women committed to and motivated by their personal goals, who are looking for a way to boost their careers, to sign up for Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - London School of Economics.

Would like to discover for yourself the transformative experience that Virginia describes? Develop your leadership skills and boost your career with Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - London School of Economics. This is your opportunity!

(At the moment the Santander Santander Open Academy Women | Emerging Leaders 2022 - LSE has reached its end, but we encourage you to take a look at the Santander Open Academy to find the training that best suits you and give a boost to your professional career. Seize the chance to develop your knowledge and skills!)