B5 - Is there more to transferable skills development than delivering courses?

Day 1 at 16:15 - Many transferable skills development programmes depend on face-to-face courses and workshops, but is this the best way of achieving researcher development? Contemporary research and the presenters' recent exploration of the transferability of skills indicate that there are many ‘taken-for granted' assumptions that may inhibit the effectiveness of developers' efforts. Such assumptions are embedded in the way programmes are structured and promoted to researchers, through to the way activity is evaluated often reflecting the views of the developers more than their academic context. This workshop explored some of the assumptions informing the development agenda. It was the presenters' thesis that transferable skills may not be so readily acquired and that different cohorts or groups of researchers may need different kinds of development. Further, research indicates that transitioning from academia to other kinds of working environments may not be easily achieved because much workplace activity depends on tacit knowledge that, perhaps, orthodox approaches to development have under-appreciated. All of this presents a challenge to the rationale behind transferable skills development programmes dominated by courses. Strand - Postgraduate researcher.