SISA4 - Articulate - A toolkit to help early career researchers in the game of understanding and articulating their competencies
| Day | Day 1 |
|---|---|
| Session | Special Interest |
| Start time | 17.30 |
| Code | SISA4 |
| Presenter |
Lorna Warnock, Employability Manager, University of York Amanda Barnes, Employability Officer/Research Fellow, University of York |
Session overview:
Through our engagement with PhD internships, we know that students struggle with the concept of competencies and how to write about their competencies when applying for jobs and internships and how to talk about them at interviews.
Working with the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and employers we have produced a Competency Framework for Bioscience PhD students to reflect eight competencies most valued by employers which include Teamworking and Leadership and have consulted with employers to assess the levels of these competencies expected from PhD students. The Framework is available at https://www.heaacademy.ac.uk/node/10074.
We have further developed a Toolkit that includes video case studies of students and employers describing competencies and an interactive Competency Framework pdf to record professional development. The Toolkit is available at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/mysterious-language-competencies-helping-your-students-understand-and-articulate-their
In this session we will work together to adapt the existing PhD Competency Framework to the competencies of Early Career Researchers and we will produce an interactive Competency Framework pdf for Early Career Researchers that we will share at the conference via Social Media and later with Researchers and employers.
Topics covered:
- Adaptation of the existing PhD Competency Framework to the expected competencies of Early Career Researchers. Using the interactive Competency Framework pdf, we will work together in the session to produce a generic Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers that will cover most sectors.
- Tailoring the generic Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers to encapsulate competencies required by Researchers in the sectors specific to our workshop participants. We can then encourage our Researchers to take ownership of the Framework.
- During the conference we will share the interactive Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers via Social Media for evaluation and further development to provide a Framework that everyone can adapt and incorporate into their Researcher Development Training.
Themes covered:
- Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers' experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research.
Session outcomes:
The session is designed to explore how we can collaborate with employers to articulate the competencies and level of competencies that they expect from Early Career Researchers throughout a wide range of careers and how Early Career Researchers can best articulate these competencies.
We will design a Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers based on 8 competencies that employers value most highly. The Competency Framework will be made available for further consultation with employers to work with them to develop bespoke Frameworks appropriate for a wide range of careers.
On the flip side, the Competency Framework will also be made available to Early Career Researchers in the form of an interactive pdf for Researchers to prepare their own bespoke Competency Framework to enhance and record Researcher development.
By working together with employers and Early Career Researchers we will be able to produce flexible Competency Frameworks that can be developed over time to support changes in commercial needs and meet the expectations for the preparation of Early Career Researchers for a range of career choices.
Participants will:
- Gain an understanding of the competencies and level of competencies of Early Career Researchers
- Obtain knowledge of the competencies and level of competencies that employers expect from Early Career Researchers
- Collectively design an interactive pdf Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers that will be shared at the conference via Social Media
- Have an opportunity to consider how they will adapt the Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers for their own sector
- Have an opportunity to discuss how best to introduce the Competency Framework for Early Career Researchers to their own Researchers and network of employers.
