Transferable skills help or hindrance?

1. Transferable skills help or hindrance?

2. Alison Rodger • Director of EPSRC-funded Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre at Warwick • Biophysical chemist: biomacromolecule structure & function; development of spectroscopic techniques • Consultant for MScan; director of Dioptica Scientific Ltd.; mother of 2; ‘jack of all trades & master of none’ • BSc (hons), PhD Sydney 1985 • Research Fellow, Newnham College, Cambridge • Research Fellow, St Catherine’s, St Hilda’s, Oxford • Warwick: since 1994

3. Why bother with transferable skills? • We can get on to a hobby horse about transferable/generic skills training but • Does addressing it make Warwick (for me) a better place in terms of • Help students, PDRAs, academic staff? • Improve research productivity? • Help finances? • Enhance our reputation? • Help us sleep at night? • Improve career prospects?

4. External pressure • It is increasingly being accepted that skills in STEM are central to driving innovation, creativity & competitiveness for the UK. • BUT UK PhD has for a long time been felt (in some quarters) to be: • too narrow and not transferable to later life. • to have insufficient graduate level training and generic/transferable skills training • UK PhDs not competitive in international job market

5. How we got started • Proof by example: Grad schools, conferences, away days akways seemed to give my students a boost of energy • Research councils: told us we should be giving our students transferable skills training (no accounting though) • Over ‘the dead bodies’ of some colleagues: most of my colleagues are now at worst resigned but it is still perceived as a waste of time by many

6. EPSRC conceived DTCs EPSRC realized that research had to change in academia, industry, research centres • Larger visions require larger teams • Researchers need to be able to adopt new methods of working • Nationally we needed to move towards quantitative/computational techniques • Researchers have to work with people from other disciplines/cultures

7. EPSRC gave the freedom to work out how (within constraints) … • Call for DTCs (now CDTs): required transferable skills • So if you wanted the money you promised to do it • DTC system also seemed to require inter university interactions: we worked with IC on Team development, Science communication and Decision making & leadership. 1/year of PhD + student run conference.

8. The interface between Physical, Mathematical, Life Sciences PhD Programme at Warwick provides the opportunity to combine the abilities and knowledge of several disciplines into one multidisciplinary research project, after an MSc in Mathematical biology and biophysical chemistry

9. We are challenged by… How does a 1 ng/10 μm bag of molecules end up being a thinking moving creative human being? Yet an almost identical bag of molecules end up a cauliflower? Or even a salmonella

10. Warwick provided the MOAC centre for non-lab activities ….. • Young researcher targeted conferences • ‘Summer’ schools/ ‘winter’ workshops • Training courses including TS • Meetings • Seminars • Visiting lecturers – our audience helps organisers! • Networking events • ‘Neutral’ territory + of course teaching.

11. Transferable skills: why???? • To help students • to be a successful doctoral researcher undertaking world leading research • to improve their research effectiveness • to be even more successful in their postdoctoral career. To understand what they know and how to use that to maximum effect in their project and beyond.

12. Cross-Disciplinary Science at the Warwick DTCs We wrote in the same type of programme for Systems Biology & Complexity Science: informal/ad hoc approach too complicated to manage We promised to train students for their future career as scientists while equipping them with skills to manage their PhD. (Students have the short-term goal of getting a PhD we have the long term goal of their future careers….)

13. The Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Sciencewww.warwick.ac.uk/go/pioneers

14. Aims of certificate • To help students • to be a successful doctoral researcher undertaking world leading research • to improve your research effectiveness • to be even more successful in your postdoctoral career • to understand what you know and how to use that to maximum effect in your project and beyond.

15. Structure of the certificate • For PhD students in Warwick Faculties of Science & Medicine • Usually 2 modules per year. Total 6 modules x 10 CATS each. • Standards and progress are formally overseen by the Warwick Interdisciplinary Science Committee (WISC). In practice students deal mainly with Departmental Directors of Graduate Studies.

16. The overall structure

17. The skills modules • Skills 1-3 cover the basic skills needed and used by science PhD students. You collate (and maintain) a brief portfolio based around your day-to-day research activities. • Year 1 focuses on concerns and skills of graduates starting out on independent research.Years 2 and 3 focus on skills and activities needed to develop and complete a project and for a career after your PhD. • Collate a brief portfolio – keep it up to date! • Tasks signed off by supervisor or relevant academic.

18. Doctoral skills 1 1.Starting Literature Review – 5 Research Papers 2. Research Plan (including budget) (Keep changing it) 3. Interim Research Report 4. End of year Research Report 5. Year 1 Research Poster or Seminar Review for General Reader 6. Seminar Summaries 7. Poster Marking/Postgraduate Presentation Assessment 8. Meeting Planning 9. Web page

19. + 3 other modules YEAR 1:Team working and Networking: 3 day course YEARS 2 & 3: Choose 2 of Science Communication Decision-making and Leadership Research ethics Envisioning and enabling innovation Teaching Epistemology and psychology Scientific writing skills Project management Biometry: The application of statistics and mathematics in Biosciences Bioscience, Politics & Social Acceptability

20. Post doctoral researchers… Post doctoral researchers at an in-between stage in their careers – exciting and insecure. We’ve developed a post doctoral certificate to help them manage their careers: Structured mentored programme Advanced Researcher Skills 1 Critical literature review; Research planning, reports; Attend a conference, present work, follow-up; Research seminar, report on the feedback and subsequent actions; Poster Marking/Presentation assessment; Review a paper; Review a grant proposal; Write a paper; Propose and manage a budget. Advanced Researcher Skills 2 Organising conference/workshop; visit external research group; Host a visiting researcher; Supervise a project student; national society; Write a research proposal; Chair a meeting including establishing agenda + 4 options (or one for a PG Award)

21. Web pages • For MOAC www.warwick.ac.uk/go/MOAC • For Transferable skills for both PhD and post docs www.warwick.ac.uk/go/pioneers then choose the appropriate link

22. The leaders of tomorrow????? Presentation Communication Vision Teaching Theoretical analysis Networking Focus Practical skills