G15 Accelerate – in their own words – Emildah Chabata

In 2020, G15 Chief Executive’s signed the G15 Ethnic Diversity Pledge, committing members to achieving meaningful change to support minority ethnic colleagues and to better reflect the communities we serve throughout our organisations.

As part of the pledge, we committed to collaborate to invest and support our minority ethnic talent. From this, the G15 Accelerate programme was launched.

G15 Accelerate is a high calibre Chartered Management Institute (CMI) leadership development programme that’s open to minority ethnic managers who want to accelerate their career trajectory. The programme aims to break down barriers facing talented minority ethnic people, with 37 colleagues completing the first edition of the course.

With the second edition of G15 Accelerate launching this summer, we caught up with Emildah Chabata, Community Investment Regional Manager at MTVH and G15 Accelerate Programme 1 Alumna, to ask her about the programme and his experiences.

Can you tell us a little about your day job?

“I am the Regional Manager for Community Investment for our South and South London Region. Our aim is to work in a more focused way to empower our residents and communities to be able to live well by making it our core purpose to help them achieve their basic needs. By working holistically with our residents, we can have an impact not only on their current quality of life but give them a platform from which they can make and implement longer term decisions for themselves and their local community.”

Why did you apply to take part in G15 Accelerate?

“I wanted an opportunity to grow. I’ve been doing my job for a while and it's really busy, so sometimes you get lost, and I wanted to take a step back for myself to learn and grow and gain new skills.”

What is your highlight from the programme?

“I loved the session where we met with different CEOs. Listening to people with real life experience with the highest level of experience in our organisations was fascinating.”

What did you find most challenging?

“For me personally, the course in its original format was more demanding than originally anticipated, but I enjoyed that challenge. I did found it took more of my time than I anticipated. For anyone who wants to do it they should think about how they balance a demanding course with life and the day job

“Despite some of the challenges with the programme as it was the first edition, all the tutors throughout have been fantastic.”

Any words of advice for people considering applying?

“For people to understand that it is really important to carve out 20 per cent of their work week to do the course, which you are entitled to, in order to do the learning and coursework.”