Graduate Skills Training

Chemagination offers a series of Graduate Skills Training Workshops that are geared towards developing the skills and capabilities central to a successful modern professional career. The workshops aim through group and individual exercises, role-playing and instructor-led discussion:

To improve the abilities of graduates to recognise and validate problems, think critically and to manage and resolve issues.
To raise awareness of the differing demands of academia & industry, concern for standards, the need for rigour and to improve personal effectiveness.
To highlight the importance of communication, team-working, networking and career-planning.
To give 'hands-on' practice of problem-solving in the commercial arena.
To encourage self-awareness and analysis of own performance.
To introduce and develop concepts central to recruitment, giving participants the tools and confidence they need in order to succeed.

The accompanying workshop booklets have space for notes & answers and include background information and details of further resources.

General and Tailored Courses

"Getting In and Getting On in the Workplace" is a full day workshop covering personal effectiveness, presentation and attitude in the workplace, with exercises in problem solving and creative thinking and guidance on recruitment from preparation of CV's and application forms to interviews and assessment centres.

"I Know How to do That!" is a chemistry-specific version of the workshop with hands-on exercises in problem solving and creative thinking taken from the commercial sector.

Roberts Funding Criteria & the RCUK Joint Statement

The specific skills identified as training requirements in the RCUK Joint Statement that are most strongly addressed our workshops are detailed below, with many other facets also covered:

Research Skills and Techniques - to demonstrate the ability to recognise and validate problems, think critically and be able to develop theoretical concepts, have the ability to summarise, document, report and reflect on progress.
Research Environment - to demonstrate appreciation of standards of good research practice in their institution and/or discipline.
Research Management - to be able to apply effective project management through the setting of research goals, intermediate milestones and prioritisation of activities.
Personal Effectiveness - to be creative, innovative and original in one's approach to research, demonstrate flexibility and open-mindedness, show initiative, work independently and be self-reliant.
Communication Skills - to be able to construct coherent arguments and articulate ideas clearly to a range of audiences, formally and informally through a variety of techniques.
Networking and Teamworking - to understand one's behaviours and impact on others when working in and contributing to the success of formal and informal teams, to listen, give and receive feedback and respond perceptively to others.
Career Management - to appreciate the need for and show commitment to continued professional development and demonstrate an insight into the transferable nature of research skills to other work environments and the range of career opportunities within and outside academia

To book a workshop or request further information please contact us (click here).