Application requests experience or interest in professional/leadership programs

Question

I am a recent PhD graduate in a STEM field and I am currently a postdoc. I am also applying for assistant professorship positions since a postdoc is not permanent.

One of the applications for an assistant professorship position requires the usual documents (CV, research plan, letters of recommendation etc.) however this application also requests a "one-page statement listing experience or interest in professional and/or leadership programs" (this is taken verbatim from the posting for the position).

I have never come across this request for an assistant professor position before. Could someone please provide some advise regarding the content to write for this section of the application please?

Answer 1

This is a bit speculative, but it may be that the university has an interest in running highly intensive non-degree programs for professionals. A number of universities to this and it can be an important source of funding for them. They are sometimes called Executive Programs or something similar.

I once had a couple of grants from companies that wanted specialized training (and guidance) for some of their professionals. But some programs are just open to applicants willing to pay for admission.

If that is the case, you can probably learn that online or by asking a department head. You can then format a reply.

Experience and desire may or may not be a requirement, but I suspect that it would be a consideration. Willingness to work with non-traditional students would probably, in the described circumstances, be as important as prior experience - at the assistant professor level, where it would be less likely to have happened.

This is much more likely to be the case in some fields than in others, of course. In my case it was modern software development practice that was of interest to local companies.