In February, our pilot group of Rank Aspire Programme (RAP) members made their way up to the Lake District to embark on group activities and tackling the Via Ferrater. Despite some challenging weather, the group completed the challenge, bonded with their fellow Aspire members and attended sessions on personal and professional development.
(Click photos to enlarge)
One of the attendees, Erin, has given us an account of her time on the residential:
“It was exciting to see all of the other people on the programme and catching up as we all came through from the train station. We then headed towards the centre which was beautiful! I had never been to the Lake District before and the views were really spectacular. We all eventually arrived at the centre and got started on activities and catching up with everyone’s journey through the programme. I was really happy to hear how everyone is excelling in their placements.
We covered a few different activities such as an Imposter Syndrome workshop which several of us felt we could identify with (and learned a lot from), how to overcome it, and recognise our achievements as being hard-earned – not simply luck. Another issue we identified is that most of us struggled with accepting compliments and the activity showed us how to accept compliments from others, which was really nice.
We were all given the opportunity to do the Via Ferrata, which is probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. It involved essentially clinging to the side of a mountain by a small hook. I am glad to say I have done it but it was terrifying!
The last day we woke up to so much snow which was beautiful to look at but left us unsure of how we were all getting home. After the minibus was cancelled, we were all put into cars and were all set to go home. However, the snow made it very difficult and left car wheels spinning but not moving. We weren’t sure whether it was a last minute team building activity but we all teamed together to push cars up snowy hills. It was a lovely residential and I look forward to seeing everyone again!” – Erin, Rank Aspire @ Brook.