Researcher Development and Transferable Skills: Opportunities, Programmes and Resources at the University of Cambridge November 2011

Researcher Development and Transferable Skills: Opportunities, Programmes and Resources at the University of Cambridge

Introduction

The UK leads the world at the present time, in supporting researchers to develop transferable skills, following the Bologna agreement (1999) and the Roberts report ‘Set for Success’ (2002).

This document has been prepared for the use of PIs engaged in preparing bids for research funding, particularly for Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) which require a section on transferable skills delivery and how this might be implemented. It provides a summary of the opportunities, resources, activities and programmes available within the University for the development of transferable skills for graduates and postgraduates.

It is not the intention to be prescriptive about how a particular DTC or funded research programme might include the required transferable skills training element, but rather to provide information and ideas based on existing opportunities and current practice.Please cut and paste from this document as required.

The information has been gathered from a number of sources, including extensive discussions with Prof Jeremy Baumberg and the Teaching Fellows currently employed as part of the DTC on Nanotechology, who have produced a very engaging induction and transferable skills programme for that DTC.

For more information, clarification, or the inclusion of additional material that might be useful for other PIs, please feel free to contact Dr Sue Jackson, the author of this document.

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Note:

The EPSRC monitoring and evaluation framework for the portfolio of centres for doctoral training (CDT’s) is available at the link below:

“The framework is written to give an indication of what EPSRC would expect the centres to be able to measure and report on in years five and onwards because we believe it is important that all centres know what information they need to start collecting now.”

Areas of evaluation relevant to transferable skills training include the following (numbering of points below relate to the original document)

2.6How are students better equipped to be the future leaders in their field and / or act as ‘agents for change’ in their organisations?

3.4 How has training prepared students for their PhD projects, and what metrics and information have you used to reach these conclusions?

3.5 What transferable skills programmes have you used or developed, and what careers training do you provide?

3.6 What have you been doing to help your students to explore, discuss and reflect on the wider ethical issues around their work?

3.7 What have you been doing to encourage your students to engage with the public and to understand the value of this engagement?

4.1.4 Has the CDT’s approach to skills training been followed in other parts of the host institution(s)? How?

4.3 What user (e.g. employers, industrial, clinical , government etc) involvement has the CDT attracted?

5.5 What prominent visitors/speakers and events, from other research organisations, industry, business and society has the CDT been able to attract?

6.6 What Intellectual Property, e.g., patents secured, spin-out companies, other commercialisation etc, has been generated to date and what has been the impact of these outputs?

The document that follows includes ideas and information with which to address these areas with regard to transferable skills training.

1.Background

A major new approach to researcher development, the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) was launched in 2010, by Vitae, the UK organisation championing the personal, professional and career development of doctoral researchers and research staff in higher education institutions and research institutes. The RDF articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers and encourages them to aspire to excellence through achieving higher levels of development. This approach aims “to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build the UK higher education research base” (Vitae,

RCUK has endorsed the Researcher Development resources provided by Vitae, and their use is becoming increasingly common across the sector- both by offering the Framework (RDF) as a personal development planning tool and by using the Statement (RDS) as a means of organising and describing transferable skill training. In line with the majority of the Russell Group Universities, the University of Cambridge has adopted the RDS to delineate the two principal areas of transferable skills provision, covering Domain B (Personal Effectiveness) and D (Engagement, influence and impact).

Cambridge University’s Graduate Development Programme (GDP) has been delivering skills training to postgrads and postdocs in the University for a number of years following the generous levels of Roberts’ funding awarded to the University since 2002. Regular communication and interaction with Vitae, and its East of England Hub, as well as staff engaged with supporting researchers at other Universites, ensures that the GDP keeps abreast of new resources and innovations. Our participation in the national agenda allows sharing of best practice with other UK Universities, to mutual benefit. For instance, the GDP team runs a local GRADschool twice a year, and our trainers also join other Universities to help deliver their GRADschool programmes.

The Doctoral Training Centres currently funded in Cambridge, have also allowed the sharing of best practice and it is clear from the experience gained that there is a great benefit in cohort education. The cohort has great value in allowing enhanced outcomes for some of the core transferable skills delivery such as team building, communications and working within a supportive community, all of which are key attributes outlined in the RDS. A number of DTCs at one institution allows for economies in scale in sharing of resources, and also allows the students not onlyto bond with their immediate cohort, but to develop an understanding across a range of disciplines.

We are fortunate in Cambridge to be part of a highly entrepreneurial community. In January 2005, it was estimated that 310 spin-off and start-up companies had been created from the University of Cambridge of which 252 were still trading in some form or other (Hiscocks, 2005). In terms of enhancing employability, this network provides a rich vein of local entrepreneurs and successful business people who can and do, provide inspiration and role models. The University’s Enterprise Network encourages the spirit of enterprise and ‘can do’ that has led to so many successful spinout companies being set up in the region.

In addition, the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) delivers a range of educational activities on the practice of entrepreneurship, to inspire and build skills and 'spread the spirit of enterprise' within the University of Cambridge and beyond.The skills that are gained through engaging in such activities are aimed at preparing researchers for the twenty first century, with new interpersonal, synthesising, organising and communication skills.

The relatively newly formed Centre for Science and Policy also provides training, support and opportunities for researchers to engage with policy makers. The Centre for Science and Policy is creating a new type of literacy with its ‘distinguished lecture series’ and visiting policy makers, bringing in people with experience, to talk about how policy is actually made and how researchers can contribute to that process, which has been hugely beneficial.

2. Transferable Skills for DTCs

The benefits of cohort education enabled by the DTC model are beyond doubt. One great advantage is the possibility of providing a specifically tailored programme in the first year to get the students off to a flying start.

Experience gained from the very successful DTC in nanotechnology, which has been running in Cambridge for a couple of years proves the benefits of team work and bonding, encouraged by group activities, with an encouragement to share strengths, co-mentor and communicate.

Bonding the students and making them part of a team avoids the sense of isolation often experienced at the beginning of a PhD and helps the students to fly. Confidence and excellent communication skills are particularly important for researchers engaged in an interdisciplinary area, allowing them to share expertise and knowledge, which can potentially lead to new avenues of research and thinking, through cross fertilisation of methodology and research ideas.

2.1Transferable Skills Training for first year DTC students

A very specific tailored programme catering to the needs of the students in the discipline is seen as an essential part of the process.

Building on the expertise developed by the University’s Graduate Development Programme (GDP) and existing DTCs within the University, the following are considered essential elements for the DTC programme:

  1. Robust interview programme for applicants: panel interviews, tours of facilities, opportunities to meet with existing students have all been found to be very effective in choosing candidates who will thrive in the research environment offered by a DTC. Working in a multi-disciplinary environment requires working together and a strong spirit of curiosity about other related research areas. Researchers must not be afraid of talking to new people, have a strong spirit of curiosity and must be enthused about the new way of working offered by the DTC rather than the standard one person/ one supervisor approach. The selection procedure would aim to identify candidiates who will thrive in such an environment,
  1. Induction Camp: there are a number of tried and tested models for team building and development of interpersonal skills. Our experience of running GRADschools, which have long been highly favoured by RCUK, have shown how quickly strong teams can be formed (in a matter of days). Such teams quickly adopt co-operative behaviour and exhibit a high degree of competence in working together to be innovative in seeking new solutions. A short weekend residential course, or induction camp, run using the experienced University staff or external trainers with relevant expertise will achieve this. If a number of DTCs are running, then we can achieve economies of scale in terms of transport and accommodation. It is highly desirable to introduce this at an early stage, so sometime during the first or second week of the new intake.
  1. Regular team meetings throughout the whole programme, beginning with weekly meetings, until the team is better established, are seen as critical, building the ability of team members to share information. Such meetings allow graduate students and others to present and discuss research findings, as well as providing an opportunity to bring in speakers from industry and researchers from other Universities /academic Institutions. Encouraging the students to get involved in the process of inviting speakers, planning and setting up these meetings as their confidence increases, is known to be highly beneficial and an important component of researcher development.
  1. Case Studies‘from Lab to Real World’: part of the above programme should include inviting speakers showing how ideas move from the lab to ‘real world’ applications. Such talks have been found to be inspirational. As previously mentioned, the proliferation of high tech companies and spinouts in the Cambridge environment makes these types of contact relatively easy.
  1. Regular poster sessions, and presentations are an essential element of building expertise/confidence in the research team. We have established methods of giving feedback on presentations in a supportive manner, including providing feedback on videos of presentations. Graduates progress from preparing poster sessions for an academic audience, to posters designed to inform the wider public about the nature and impact of the research. Large, university-coordinated events such as the Cambridge Science Festival provide an ideal forum for researchers to showcase their work to a varied audience, and poster competitions are a popular feature.
  1. Mentoring: throughout the programme, there will be a strong emphasis on networking and mentoring. Thus students with particular expertise will be encouraged to share their expertise with other members of the team. Second year students will play a major role in mentoring incoming students, both to share expertise and to help them develop the skills they need. This has a beneficial effect for both parties. The use of social networking groups to share skills and facilitate communications between researchers who may be geographically dispersed is encouraged. Provision of laptops and an intranet is useful for secure communication. One-to-one skills analysis sessions, with a member of the University’s graduate development programme are also available to help all students prepare a sensible plan for personal and professional develoment throughout their PhD.
  1. Team-working skills are best developed by actually working as a team to deliver a particular project. The organisation of an end–of-year conference is a testing procedure, during which students can develop these skills, especially if the students are challenged to plan a conference and not be bound by convention. They are challenged to think through the purpose of the conference: who to invite, consider the metrics for success, evaluate, and decide how to achieve the desired outcome and how to evaluate. Workshops on creative thinking are available to to encourage this process.
  1. The real strength of a DTC is that it allows students to gain experience of a number of research topics and learn a range of relevant technical skills during the first year (e.g. developed through attending taught modues and conducting a number of mini-projects) and then choose their research project from a range offered by the DTC Director and team. Guidance is necessary at this stage in the selection of a suitable project and the production of a coherent plan for undertaking the research. This bottom-up approach has the great advantage that the student engages with the project and takes ownership of it from the beginning.Taking ownership provides an incentive to drive the programme forward and to achieve a timely and productive completion.
  1. The matching of student and research project must be completed by the end of the first year. This step of a student taking ownership and responsibility for his or her own project is seen as a vital ingredient for success. Students can be encouraged to make an informal approach to individual supervisors to discuss plans and win approval, or a more novel approach can be taken, such as asking researchers to pitch their ideas and research plans to a panel, who then take the decision as to whether the plan is viable. Either way, having won approval for the research plan, the student is challenged to take it to completion. If the plan is not viable, then this stage allows students to be helped in reformulated their ideas and plans before the project begins.

2.2 Other opportunities for professional development

The following activities and opportunities are available to all PhD students at the University of Cambridge, and could be selected as part of a tailored programme of skills development or by individuals to complement their existing skills and enhance their personal and professional development throughout the PhD programme. Individual skills analysis session and an online skills survey are available to help with this planning. A summary of skills development opportunities at the University of Cambridge is provided on the skills portal:

2.2.1Enterprise/Commercial awareness: Some awareness of the principles of management are desirable for students at an early stage of their PhD. An existing series of modules run for Master’s students the ‘Management of Innovation and Technology’ ( MoTI ) has proved useful in acheiving this. The evening lecture series explores such topics as ‘Strategy for Innovative Firms’, ‘Organising for Innovation’, ‘Commercialising Science’, ‘Marketing’, ‘Microeconomics’ and ‘Decision Analysis’. Delivered by academics from the Judge Business School for postgraduates from a number of different science/technology based disciplines, the course has been highly valued.

2.2.2.Consultancy and problem solving:A component of the ‘Management of Innovation and Technology’ course ( MoTI ) involves participants working in small teams as consultants for real technology-based businesses and organisations, tackling genuine issues of concern to those corporate clients. Thus the MoTI participants have an opportunity to 'learn by doing' in a real-life environment. This exposes the postgraduates to ‘real life’ business concerns and problem solving which stand them in good stead. Similar experience can be gained by participation in ‘i-Teams’, a programme in which students work together, using real technology innovations coming out of the University to develop applications and a route to market. Leading university researchers are brought togehter with multi-disciplinary teams of the brightest students and experienced business mentors. The teams work together to investigate the commercial prospects of the researcher's new invention.

Students gain hands-on business skills, while researchers gain first-hand real-world industry feedback.