Broadening Horizons

'Broadening Horizons: career management for researchers' is an interactive and intensive two-day programme that provides research staff with the opportunity, skills and tools to help them proactively engage in their own career development. 

The programme is freely available for use to UK higher education institutions

Programme aims

The programme enables research staff to gain a clearer self-orientation of where they are within their career and to consider what their next steps might be, whether their aspirations are to remain in research and/or academia or to move into other areas.

The programme objectives are for participants to:

• gain a sense of direction and progression
• widen their understanding of career
• better understand their own career situation
• develop tools and techniques to explore their skills, motivations, values and talents and how these can be applied to their career planning
• consider potential jobs they might like to explore further
• consider what makes an effective CV
• commit to an action plan for their personal and career development. 

Programme delivery

The programme has been developed to ensure that it has the flexibility to be delivered to researcher staff from a mixture of disciplines.

The programme is modular in design which allows individual institutions the option of running it as a two-day programme, two one-day programmes or four half-day sessions.

Manuals with all the information needed to organise and deliver the programme are being updated by  Vitae and will be available to download by institutions shortly. They include:

• programme organiser manual with guidelines, additional handouts and suggested timelines
• programme leader manual which provides guidelines for facilitators to lead and debrief the programme and individual exercises
• a participant learning journal which provides support resources and acts as an aid to capture the learning from the programme.

The programme is also supported by access to a network of experienced external trainers who are able to deliver or support the delivery of the programme on your behalf.

Participant feedback

‘Time to think - away from work. A chance to think about and analyse my own opinions/situation and a chance to talk to others about careers issues.’

 'It made me think about what I wanted from a career and what skills I have. Increased my self-confidence.'