1. Patricia Gray Researcher Skills Training and Development, SDDU
FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS and PHYSICAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
Skills training and development for research students... …hints and tips
On behalf of the University’s Staff and departmental development service:
Our role is to co-ordinate and deliver personal and professional skills training for research students and staff across Faculties of Environment, Maths and Physical Sciences and Engineering.
So we supplement the more specialised training that you will get in your doctoral centre, institute or group.
SDDU offers a wide range of courses and workshops – somewhere in the region of 100 this year to support you in your research and in your continuing professional development as you:
And I think we have four aims in these to help you:
develop your research skills – obviously alongside your supervisor, centre and research team, including software, literature and writing skills. In software for example, we have an online suite of courses comprising IDL, Matlab, Fortran, Python, C++, Vensim, Netlogo, High Performance Computing as well as many other face-to-face courses that will support the progress of your research degree ie Preparing for Transfer, Preparartion for your Viva, etc
Develop your personal effectiveness ie networking skills, project management, team-working, time management, etc.
help you become employable in a worthwhile career that will enable you to exploit your high level skills
Support your communication abilities both for research and other audiences, so workshops to help you prepare posters, present talks, communicate with non-specialists, plus the Researcher Conference, competition opportunity to practice at Christmas every year
And network with researchers across a wide range of disciplines
All details of what we offer are available online and you willsee our URL at the end of this presentation where you can link to our booking site.
Please book promptly because of high demand. But book sensibly and realistically so that you are not taking places you think you only might need or only might attend and stop someone else attending. If you book and fail to turn up, we will notify your supervisor and we can resort to cancellation charges for persistent offenders.
Patricia Gray
Researcher Skills Training and Development, SDDU

2. Take responsibility for your own development
Aside from Induction level courses and those organised by your Centre obviously, it is for you to decide in conjunction with your supervisor what your training needs are and to develop them as far as possible while you have the opportunity. It may not feel like it but this sometimes, but this next few years might be the free-ist you will ever be to spend time on your own development. So I encourage you to make the most of it.

3. Investigate your future options…
A word about careers planning. (ask them who is planning an academic route/industry/teaching route, etc.)
We do have dedicated careers consultants who can personally discuss and advise you on a wide range of options.
We have industrial and commercial contacts,
You can broaden these through industrial meetings you have with partners within your centres, institutes, schools, etc.
Take every opportunity to network
Have a good Linked In profile and invite contacts to link as you meet them.
Become a member of LinkedIn groups
Join the research nets at the University – see the Research Support Network for details of these online interest groups.
Please don’t drift for the next few years. You are already highly motivated people, but it can be easy to get sucked down into the narrow well that can be your own research and not come up for air until you are very near the end and writing up. Think about where you would like to be in five or ten years time and how you are going to get there and start working towards your goals from the get-go. Take advantage of the University's Careers Service which has a huge range of resources and expertise to advise you.

4. Attend your local and University- level induction sessions
familiarise yourself with the opportunities and rules of doing a PhD
Well you are here today and by the end of the day you’ll have received a lot of information, but at some point look at your handbook, familiarise yourself with the PhD timeline and regulations. We support the PhD process through a wide range of workshops such as Preparing for your Transfer and Preparing for your Viva to assist. You will also be able to ask questions at the Getting Started Workshop.

5. Attend your PhD essentials: Getting Started Workshop
Our Getting Started With Your Research Degree workshop is essential, indeed mandatory for all new PhD students across the University and it really is a very good way to get an stronger idea of
The research degree process - being a postgraduate researcher at Leeds
Getting the best from your supervisors
Your research degree ‘Timeline’.
Doing the Right Thing – professional conduct, ethics and research governance
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the workshop you will have had the opportunity to:
Find out about the key processes involved in getting a research degree at Leeds
Consider how to get the most out of your working relationship with your supervisor
Started to develop an action plan for the first six months of your research degree
Consider aspects of professional conduct in research
Meet lots of other new postgraduate researchers
In this handout
A-Z Key information links
Originality in research
Supervisor relationship
Standard periods of study
Social media links
in to their research.

6. Development Needs Analysis - use the GRAD System or SDDU pro-forma
Complete a Training/
Development Needs Analysis
- use the GRAD System or
SDDU pro-forma
In line with most big organisations in the workplace we describe people’s skills and experiences in terms of a competency framework. In our case its called the Researcher Development Framework, this was developed by Vitae on behalf of the HE sector. It categorises and breaks skill sets down into a fairly exhaustive list and describes them, so you can assess for yourself where you might be on a trajectory from beginning the PhD to the Professoriate. I’ll show you a diagram of this in a minute.
The RDF includes a Training and Development Analysis Tool which can be accessed online, or via the GRAD system at Leeds and you will need to complete this – the University says within four weeks of starting your PhD.

7. Researcher Development Framework http://www. vitae. ac
This URL takes you to a fully downloadable Excel spreadsheet that you can use to identify areas for professional development, create an action plan and record evidence of their progress.
A newer, web-based version was developed in Autumn This was a prototype, the new version has to be paid for, but is virtually identical to the Excel tool, so have a look at that file to see whether it might be helpful to you to download.
Vitae has many rich personal and professional development resources for researchers, so do take a look at their site.

8. Discuss and plan your training with your supervisor
Your training and development plan should form the basis of a meeting between you and your supervisor to decide on a training plan for you and this might not consist of formal workshop attendances, etc, but might be some directed reading, attending a particular conference or speaking at a seminar, etc.

9. Reflect on your training and development
Can I encourage you to think reflexively about what training you do as you go along – we often forget what and where we learned something once it becomes a part of us. I know you will have to do this as part of your assessed training, but try and think about what you’ve been training in and reflect on its usefulness, what you’ve learned, etc, – not least because it will come in handy later.

10. Record your planned and undertaken training and development
So record what you’ve done and how it helped you as you go along. Using the GRAD system or keep your own log. . If nothing else, it will help you write a CV and make job or grant applications later. So that’s enough from me – any questions?
Record your planned and undertaken
training and development

11. Contact Details www.emeskillstraining.leeds.ac.uk
FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS and PHYSICAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
Contact Details
Patricia Gray
Tel:
For bookings:
Our role is to co-ordinate and deliver generic and transferable skills training for research students and staff across Faculties of Environment, Maths and Physical Sciences and Engineering.
Develop your research skills
Develop your personal effectiveness ie project management, team-working, time management, etc.
* help you become employable in a worthwhile career that will enable to exploit your high level skills
Support your communication abilities both for research and other audiences
And network with researchers across a wide range of disciplines
All details are available online and you have our URL on this handout.
Please book promptly because of high demand. But book sensibly and realistically so that you are not taking places you think you only might need or only might attend and stop someone else attending. If you book and fail to turn up, we will notify your supervisor and we can resort to cancellation charges for persistent offenders.
WiSET – First Wednesday Club