The role of the Postgraduate Careers Development Adviser at CPH Dr Kat Ford Public Health Researcher (Violence and Nightlife)

the Postgraduate Careers Development Adviser at CPH What is the Postgraduate Careers Development Adviser? Link between PhD students and the wider research culture of CPH Point of contact for students at CPH Identifying training & skills for students Skills which need to be acquired Skills wish to be acquired Not exclusively related to PhD research Experience of work on other projects Aware of opportunities Thinking about life after a PhD

Where has the idea come from? Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2013 LJMU / CPH performed well 20% of respondents agreed that they had received advice about careers Only a small percentage agreed that they had been provided with training to develop transferable skills 49% of respondents reported that they had taught / demonstrated during their research degree 53% stated that they had been given appropriate support and guidance. 43% stated that they had received formal training

Where has the idea come from? Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2013 Response from Education, Community and Leisure: Development of a training needs analysis Develop a research culture to engage students with faculty research activity Career Development - opportunity to engage with teaching Identified skills and training for students as a priority Developing the career prospects of PhD students Postgraduate Careers Development Advisor

Where has the idea come from? Not specific to LJMU Need of the modern doctorate Equip students with skills for life after a PhD HEA policy documents = development of research careers and researchers’ training in transferable skills Research Councils expect the provision of transferable skills to form a fundamental part of doctoral training Research Councils UK, Statement of Expectations for Doctoral Training

training already in existence Graduate School contact: Researcher Development Programme (Dr Lynn Clark) Vitae programme: national organisation for championing the development of researchers in the UK; Researcher Development Framework, www.vitae.ac.uk

Researcher Development Framework? Develop world-class researchers and build our research base. The RDF is a tool for planning, promoting and supporting the personal, professional and career development of researchers. It articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attitudes of researchers and encourages them to aspire to excellence through achieving higher levels of development. The Framework is designed for: researchers to evaluate and plan their own personal, professional and career development managers and supervisors of researchers in their role supporting the development of researchers trainers, developers, human resources specialists and careers advisors in the planning and provision of support for researchers’ development. employers to provide an understanding of the blend of skills unique to researchers and their potential as employees. The employability lens provides an overview of the key knowledge, behaviours and attributes typically developed by researchers that are most frequently desired by employers.

How can we help? Directors of studies & supervisors Students Skills audit at induction Understand what skills people need to develop for a PhD Monitoring skills / training needs of students in the Annual Monitoring Review (AMR), but review at any point with DoS Students Skills individuals want to develop as a researcher Feeding the importance of this into supervisor training Pointing students in the right direction – Graduate school Keeping students informed of job opportunities at CPH

How can we help? Training doesn’t have to be a two day event Opportunities available include: Faculty Research Conference (June 24th 2015, annual) The Research Cafe (contact Jean Kelly) PhD Symposium (March 2015, annual) Postgraduate Research Seminars (quarterly) Research in Focus Seminar (quarterly) CPH PhD lunch Seminars (bimonthly) CPH New starter lunches

training and development opportunities within cph Work shadowing Experience in different methodologies: Focus groups / interviews Use of statistical systems - data entry/analysis Different types of analysis e.g. capture recapture, forum analysis, SPSS, NVIVO. Systematic reviews Ethical applications Report writing Transcribing Assisting with seminars and conferences Nightlife research Telephone team Teaching – contact Rose or Conan

Next steps Work in progress Setting up a process to capture training/research opportunities available within CPH Standing item on CPH Management Team Meeting Reporting opportunities to PGR students Point of contact for PGR students looking to develop skills Building skills audit into student induction and AMR process Pro forma for PGR students to complete Opportunity to agree a personal training / development plan Feed this into supervisor training

Thank you Any Questions / ideas? K.j.ford@ljmu.ac.uk