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This is a 5-day residential, highly participative, fun and challenging event. Using a combination of outdoor activities, classroom sessions and guided individual and group reflection, participants explore their personal approach to team work, experience what makes teams successful and have the opportunity to share their experiences with a wide range of doctoral researchers. It is based at the University’s outdoor centre in the heart of the Lake District. The University of Birmingham is fortunate in having its own outdoor training centre in the Lake District. This includes fully trained and qualified staff and all specialist equipment. Facilitators skilled in group review and supporting reflection are vital to the success of this activity in order to help participants make connections with the experience and their situation “at home”. We have also found that at least one group tutor should be an experienced academic / researcher, in order to further contextualises the learning. 2 central University staff attend as group leaders, facilitate classroom based exercises and act as small group tutors as appropriate. Up to 4 small group tutors are required to facilitate exercises and group reviews. These are provided by the Centre as appropriate. Access to the on-line Belbin Team Profile tool is also required

This scheme funds young researchers to work within entrepreneurial technology-driven business to develop: 1) a practical understanding of how to transform research ideas into commercially successful products and services; 2) leadership and transferable business skills.

Real Creativity is a highly experiential, developmental creativity course which allows participants to work in real time on real problems over a two day programme. It was developed by Skyward coaching and development.

An ePortfolio is an external facing website owned and maintained by a research student.

The Talent Pool provides a unique opportunity for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers at all stages of their studies to engage with external organisations and develop into the next generation of academics, business consultants and entrepreneurs. The Talent Pool offers enterprise training that creates a network of students with various skills and ambitions who are able to make time for work experience, placements, internships, consultancy contracts or the chance to set up their own business, by understanding the important skills and strategies behind business ventures. The Talent Pool can be compared with other programmes that have been used at the University in previous years, such as Medici and SPEED.

Research Staff are offered individual coaching to work on topics of their choice, such as personal effectiveness, career management, and other challenges at work.

Volunteering is an often-overlooked route to skills development. Working with the Guild of Students, the Graduate School promotes a range of volunteering options to enable postgraduates to develop a range of invaluable skills while also helping the local (and wider) community.