Careers, skills and professional perspectives of doctoral graduates: 3 years on Alison Mitchell, Vitae Vitae®, © 2011 The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited

Vitae vision and mission “For the UK to be world-class in supporting the personal, professional and career development of researchers” Influence the development and implementation of effective policy relating to researcher development Enhance higher education provision to train and develop researchers Empower researchers to make an impact in their careers Evidence the impact of professional and career development support for researchers

Researchers’ careers What do researchers do? –First destinations by subject –Career profiles of doctoral graduates –Career profiles of doctoral entrepreneurs –Doctoral graduate destinations and impact three years on Career stories portal –Database of careers stories –Career stories on film with icould Employers’ briefings –Targeting the postgraduate and researcher market –Researchers’ skills and competencies

What happens to doctoral graduates? Where do they work? Value of a doctorate Use of knowledge, skills and experience Benefits to workplace, careers and beyond Finding and securing employment Impact Employers views

What do researchers do? three years on Survey of doctoral graduates EU/UK graduates only (2004/05) Census date 24 November 2008 – 3.5 years on All DLHE research postgraduates 2,501 responses (45%) –2,073 doctorates ‘

What do researchers do? Doctoral graduate and impact three years on Value of the doctorate (82% said it is requirement or important) Employability –2% unemployed –54% have changed jobs –£34,000 median gross annual salary Satisfied with career to date (93%) Undertaking research (40% most of the time) Use of research (82%) and generic skills (91%) Impact on employment (94%) and beyond (89%) Unique doctoral occupations 6 occupational clusters (86% in 5 of these)

Destinations three years on

Clusters over time * DLHE data for corresponding L DLHE respondents only Changes over time

Other common doctoral occupations Health professionals (accounting for 18% of the cluster), Functional and production managers and senior officials (25%); Engineering professionals (14%), ICT professionals (10%), Business, finance and statistical professional and associate professional roles (15%)

Occupational cluster by discipline

Income by discipline

Clusters over time * DLHE data for corresponding L DLHE respondents only Value of a doctorate

Importance of doctorate, skills and competencies for current employment

Conducting research and being innovative in the workplace

Use of knowledge, skills, experience Use of knowledge skills and experience

Potential impact Economic & social impact Innovation Generic skills Research/subject skills Influencing others Impact on the individual Passport to a (first) job Greater employability Salary and job security Career progression and satisfaction Quality of life

Employers’ expectations of researchers’ performance (high and very high) Employer categories Group 1: actively target doctorates Group 2: strong interest Group 3: some interest, occasionally recruit Group 4: no interest Recruiting researchers, 2009, 104 employers

Future Vitae activities Developing excellent researchers and enhancing the researcher experience Embedding researcher development in HEI practice Improving employability –demonstrate the unique value of researchers to non-HE employers –further engagement and dialogue to bridge the communication gap –empowering researchers to take responsibility for their career development

Researcher Development Framework Major new approach to researcher development –describes knowledge, behaviours and attributes of researchers at different stages of development –provides a language for communicating researcher qualities –consistent with European competencies Researcher Development Statement –policy document endorsed by key 26 UK stakeholders, including RCUK, UUK, FCs, QAA RDF website –resources, FAQs –researcher profiles Professional development tool RDF lenses

Researcher feedback on using the RDF ‘I have always though of myself as being quite ambitious, driven and focussed on what I want, but the framework made me realise I can have a much larger vision’ ‘I found it very user friendly. It was useful to reflect on it because it helps to identify your skills and think about them in a more reflective manner’ ‘I thought I didn’t have the time to fill in the RDF but it is really important to get a sense of what it is I want to achieve and why I’m doing all the other things and what my ultimately goal is’