GRADskills Programme
GRADskills is a suite of workshops and activities designed specifically for research postgraduate students (i.e. PhD, MPhil), delivered by the Centre for Education Enhancement and Development (CEED) for St Leonard's.
We aim to support the development of all research postgraduate students at the University of St Andrews, to improve their research capability and widen their employability inside and outside of academia.
Choosing and booking on workshops
You can request a place on any workshop using the University's online booking system: Personal Development Management System (PDMS). Here is a link to a video which explains how to use PDMS to find and book on workshops, and access and print off your training record. To find GRADskills workshops, select "Show all courses", and then filter by Audience, selecting "PG Research". Workshops are listed chronologically.
Please note: GRADskills workshops only "go live" for booking in PDMS 5 weeks before they are due to run.
We have grouped the workshops into thematic bundles (eg Getting started, Dealing with my data, Writing and publishing, Finishing up) to help you find the most relevant workshops, eg if your supervisor suggests that you should develop a particular skill such as networking. Each bundle tends to be more relevant at a particular stage of the doctorate (first year, mid-way, final year). A few of these workshops listed in the thematic bundles are run by the PSC (Professional Skills Curriculum) which is also available to research postgraduate students and bookable through PDMS.
Alternatively, you might want to see which workshops we run for each particular sub-domain of the Researcher Development Framework (RDF), particularly if you use the RDF to structure your skills development discussions with your supervisor.
We have a certain number of licenses for Vitae's online RDF Planner, which you can use to identify strengths, action plan, review achievements and create a portfolio of evidence. if you would like access to the Planner do not sign up via the Vitae website; instead please email gradskills-pgr@st-andrews.ac.uk to request a license.
