Transferable Skills
A PhD is an opportunity, not just to write a thesis, but to develop a range of skills that will be valuable in whatever career you decide to go into. By the end of your studies you should be able to demonstrate skills such as
- Time management
- Project organisation
- Team work
- Public speaking and designing presentations
- Competence with a variety of software, including LaTeX and possibly programming languages
- Ability to work independently and think creatively
- Ability to summarise large amounts of information
- Ability to communicate difficult concepts to a wider audience
But you don't have to do it all by yourself! This webpage gives you all the information you'll need about the opportunities available for making your CV look fantastic.
Transkills
The University of Edinburgh provides many courses to help you develop these
transferable skills, otherwise known simply as 'transkills'. The webpage which
links to all of these courses is
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/doctoral/courses/science-engineering
For students in the last 18 months of their PhDs, the University runs a 4-day
residential course called GRADschool, in which you will get to meet graduate
students from across Edinburgh:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/doctoral/courses/gradschool/outline
Generic skills at ICMS
In addition to the more general courses run by the University, the School of Maths works with ICMS to provide more specific courses tailored to the needs of mathematicians. Details of previous years' courses may be found on the ICMS website and examples of the courses include
- How to use advanced LaTeX, including Beamer
- How to give a good maths talk or seminar
- Web page design
- Realising your potential outside academia
- What happens in a PhD oral
- Software for scientific computation
- Report writing
Listen out for announcements of generic skills programmes in the coming year; they are valuable events to attend and you'll also get the chance to meet mathematics graduate students from across Scotland.
Roberts Funding
In response to a report published by Sir Gareth Roberts in 2002, the government provided every university with a pot of money to be used for transferable skills training for postgraduates. This year (2011/2012) will be the last year that this money is available, so students should try to make the most of it! There are many regulations on what the money can be used for; in particular it cannot be used for things like travel expenses, or for events which focus only on one particular research group. Examples of why you might apply for the money are:
- To do a language course.
- To do any Open Studies course, for example, on philosophy, linguistics or medieval history!
- To run your own generic skills PG colloquium (see Eric Hall if you are interested in proposing a topic or giving a talk).
- To attend a training course elsewhere in the country; such opportunities will appear in your inbox from time to time, for example, learning to make a radio programme about science with the BBC, going to work at parliament for a summer or training to be a maths busker.
- To organise a graduate student conference.
If you would like to discuss the possbilities for using the Roberts money further, please contact Andrew Ranicki.
©2010 School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh
