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Using the Skills Training Programme courses, the Medical Sciences Division seeks to equip Graduate Research Students and Research Staff members with a comprehensive set of skills ensuring each researcher realises his/her maximum potential and thereby lay the foundations for a successful career in the sciences.

The University has set up a fund to support local training initiatives led by researchers (PhD students and research staff) themselves. This Researcher-Led Fund is available for specific projects/activities/events initiated by research students or research staff for the benefit of groups of researchers at a School, research unit or research group level.

The Northern Enterprise Schools Consortium aims to create a series of 3 to 4 residential workshops on both sides of the Pennines annually. It utilises Knowledge transfer, social enterprise and intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial activity to deliver a number of career skill needs to early career researchers. It is a collaborative exercise between the universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, Salford, Durham, and York.

The Social Media sessions demonstrated a successful integration of a student-led initiative within a formal graduate training provision. The initiative underlined the importance of engaging PhD students in their own learning and training needs, in both sharing expertise with peers and in contributing to their own professional development. In doing so, it demonstrated to other postgraduate researchers how they might utilise their own areas of expertise to develop further student-led initiatives.

The Jubilee Graduate Centre (JGC) has been exclusively developed for postgraduate students and early career researchers. It works closely with Schools on the Jubilee Campus to develop Faculty-specific training and careers events for PGRs/ECRs focusing on transferable skills, and which reflect the requirements of the Funding Councils.

The Arts Graduate Centre (AGC) offers a unique social and training space which has been developed specifically for Arts Faculty postgraduates. Its main activity is grouped around building a community for postgraduates in the Arts Faculty, developing skills and improving employability. It has a centre which provides a place to study, socialise and find out information. AGC has a strong web presence which includes an interactive researcher portal using a workspace platform. This year it is piloting a compulsory training prrogramme, offering 3 days of bespoke training to Arts Faculty PGRs per year, alongside an an annual events programme (approx 30 instances) which is bespoke to the Arts Faculty and complimentary to the cross-Faculty Graduate School training offer at Nottingham. AGC also runs larger-scale conferences and networking events, often with a knowledge transfer or an interdisciplinary focus. These include interdisciplinary symposia, speed-conferencing evenings, HE fairs and research poster competitions. AGC has a strong history in arranging paid placements opportunities (30 per year) which are uniquely supported by regular guided groupwork (reflective practice sessions) and one-to-one support. AGC also supports postgraduate-led initiatives with project planning and proposal-writing advice. These have included a feminist reading group, the Nottingham Poetry Series (funded by Arts Council & Lottery Fund) and Mind the Skills Gap (funded initiaive to bring consultancy-level business training to Arts Faculty postgrads trhougha series of 8 full or half-day workshops.) . AGC also seeks additional funding annually to develop a special interest strand which speaks to training, social and networking needs amongst the postgraduate community as well as the knowledge transfer agenda. Last year we ran AGC Year of the Writer which had a Writer in Residence who coordinated a series of writing workshops (poetry, novels, for broadcast), author talks, a creative writing competition and local schools-based writing activities (co-ordinated by 2 paid postgraduate interns.) This year we received AHRC funding to run ResearcherCurator - a placement-like programme where participants are offered 4 days of specialist trainign and mentoring to design and deliver an element of public programming at the Galleries of Justice, Nottingham (see separate database entry). Part of the AGC events programme is also available to final-year undergraduates in order to support Faculty postgraduate recruitment. AGC is also piloting an alumni mentoring programme - Bridges - which is designed to match postgraduate students up with alumni already established in a range of career sectors for a 6-month e-mentoring relationship. Alumni have been an integral part of our Moving On series which uses alumni to deliver short training interventions designed to be responsive to the requirements of key potential employers. This included 'Copywriting and proofreading skills ofr publishing' (delivered by Publishing Operations Manager at Hodder & Stoughton. The Arts Gradaute Centre also works in collaboration with another Graduate Centre to offer training/information/social events to early career researchers.

Glasgow’s researcher development initiative aims to develop and support a vibrant community of researchers who can participate in meaningful engagement with researchers from other fields, policy makers, the wider public, and the local community and business sector. This has been achieved through our flagship ‘Making an Impact’ event which connects researcher training with opportunities to put what has been learnt into practice in real scenarios. ‘Making an Impact’ ran 3 times in the last academic year and was well attended by early-career researchers from all disciplines, as well as prospective PhD students. The overarching aim of the event was to help researchers to consider how their research and how they as researchers can have an impact on the local community, Government policy or the economy. Each event had two distinct sections as well as networking opportunities: Part A: Presentations from PhD alumni These were designed to help participants consider the wide range of career opportunities open to them and identify possible routes into these. Many speakers brought examples of how they are continuing to work closely with academia, thus enabling researchers to understand how their research could be used to inform work in museums, policy, social enterprise and spin-outs. These talks have cemented relationships between local organisations and the University. For example, discussions are now underway between a current research student in Adult Education and one of the Social Enterprise speakers about possible research collaboration. Following the presentation from a representative of Glasgow museums, a current researcher was invited to visit and meet curatorial staff to help clarify her career goals. Part B: Presentations from current research students Current researchers presented their work, considering how best to convey its value and interest to an audience outside of their own field (including the external speakers). Pitching their talk at the correct ‘level’ was particularly challenging for many students but they appreciated having an ‘outsider’ perspective as well as finding out about research methods and practice in other fields and areas where they might collaborate or learn from each other.

An overview of TST courses in the Graduate School of Life Sciences addressing the entire Roberts agenda, and run across the whole school or within individual Departments and Institutes; but run for the individual student rather than for the yeargroup or the course.

The MPLS Division at Oxford provides a programme of skills training courses for its doctoral research students and postdoctoral researchers, based upon the Joint Skills Statement. The programme is reviewed on an ongoing basis, so that each year’s programme is relevant and up to date. For 2009-10 an overarching framework of personal effectiveness courses has been established, with the aim of supporting researchers in their development from the early stages of their doctoral studies through to the first permanent appointment, be this inside or outside academia. In addition to the existing website, a new skills handbook has been produced which will provide comprehensive information about the programme for new students and research staff.

A fund for researchers within the Faculty to apply for, to cover costs of attending external events which develop their transferable skills.