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The Career Skills Option is a programme of events allowing postgraduate Researchers a range of provision (up to 10 alternatives) with which they can complete the Skills Programme. All of the options are worth at least three days of training as part of the compulsory Skills Programme at Liverpool. Options include a residential Enterprise School, Vitae GradSchools, Teaching and Volunteering programmes, the online Career Skills Portfolio, Research Council Yes competitions, internships and work experience,. Website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/gradschool/events/careerskills.htm Career skills managment is about the individual making choices so flexibility in terms of provision is most important and the online careers resources enable PGRs to basically perm their own career management programme from a selection of provision, events and self generated activity.

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.

As part of the Medical Sciences Divisional Skills Training Programme graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to explore moving away from academia and consider the opportunities open to them for a career based in Medical Writing and Medical Communications. Beginning with an introductory session comprising of presentations and a networking lunch with potential employers. Then a more focussed two workshop.

A residential workshop for PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) with an interest in interdisciplinarity and the commercialisation of research.

Recently there has been growing interest in an alternate business model, social enterprise. This is a different way of doing business that trades for a social purpose whereby the social or environmental aims of the business are of equal importance to its commercial activities. Consequently the skills required for running a successful social enterprise combine those typical of enterprise activities generally with a strong motivation and passion for social improvement. We have found that this aspect is useful in engaging researchers because at the heart of social enterprise is a strong commitment to achieving a better society, a motivation that resonates with that which typically drives the research agenda and researchers themselves. This collaborative project with Vitae has been successful in developing written and associated video materials to explore enterprise skills with early career researchers. There are plans to disseminate the resources via Vitae as part of the ongoing move to produce development resources that are freely available to HEIs as part of the research skills development agenda, this is likely to be in January 2011.

A full day conference for research staff from the 5 North East Universities with a programme aimed to help researchers reflect upon their own professional development and focus on the actions they can take to develop and manage their careers

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.

A number of Research Staff Societies have been set up by research staff at the University of Edinburgh. These have been started by motivated research staff in several Schools and Research Institutes. The Researcher Development Programme has worked closely with the societies providing help and support. This society development was recognised by being shortlisted for the Times Higher Awards 2008.

A programme of workshops, mentoring sessions and residential courses to help PhD students develop confidence and skills to enable them to realise their career ambitions