TU-Delft X!LEAD program “making meaningful impact”
The result
X!LEAD is a traineeship program designed to connect technical academic graduate talents from the TU Delft to the innovative business challenges of its partner companies; start-ups, scale-ups and corporates.
Both the talents and the organizations benefit! The talents enhance their leadership and innovation skills and boost their mental (business) resilience. 90% of the talents finds a job within the network afterwards. The partners drive sustainable innovation, with the right blend of business, strategy and technological insight. Some meaningful impact projects include developing a new Megawatt Charging System for ABB, creating a lightweight bicycle frame at Gazelle, and improving the usability of an ultra-rapid test kit at Nostics.
LeftField Studio’s impact
In the role of X!LEAD’s program lead LeftField Studio contributes to these results by:
Delivering educational program and large scale seminars that help trainees and partner companies enhance their leadership and innovation skills. E.g. designing and developing curriculum, creating training materials and leading interactive workshops and seminars.
Providing tailored on and offsite project support. First, by weekly mentoring to deliver hands-on project support, assisting trainees to remain on track with their business goals. And providing guidance on individual challenges and align each talent´s efforts with project objectives. Second, by in person coaching to boost both professional skills and business effectiveness.
LeftField Studio collaborated with a dedicated team of TU Delft and The Rookie Minds (an external education partner).
X!LEAD in more detail
The program boasts a unique matching process that ensures a good fit between the talents and the partnering organizations, aiming for a win-win scenario for all stakeholders involved. During the 1.5 year program talents work on three strategic projects in different settings including a fast-growing start-up and two corporates. These projects span different sectors including energy, healthcare, and transportation. Talents research and implement new (deep) tech solutions, develop new products and business models or accelerate innovation by developing the strategy and design.
Parallel on working on the projects, the talents participate in a educational program aimed to boost their (personal) leadership and innovation skills. Both areas are intertwined; talents learn about team dynamics, intervision, inclusive leadership and at the same time they learn about design thinking, creative thinking and empathy. The program is immersive and action oriented. Talents learn by doing; the theory is always serving real life practices. Also, talents have their personal goals top of mind. So in every topic of the program, every talent focus on his or her specific areas of development – due to the intensive coaching and mentoring they receive.
