Five Skills You Need to Become a Lecturer in Higher Education

Five Skills You Need to Become a Lecturer in Higher Education is a web page on the jobs.ac.uk site. You can access the page by clicking here.

The five skills listed can all be developed and enhanced by engaging with King’s Researcher Development Programme. You can attend face-to-face classes and/or go through the learning modules on our Virtual Learning Environment. Links to both can be found on the right-hand side of this page.

Online booking sytem for training courses

The Graduate School is delighted to announce that from 9am on Monday 20^th October 2008 all postgraduate research students and postdoctoral research staff will be able to access the Researcher Development Programme (RDP) electronically via a system known as “Skills Forge”. 

Skills Forge enables researchers to evaluate their existing skills and identify potential areas for development, book workshops online and record all of their development activities undertaken. 

Skills Forge will automatically manage workshop bookings and waiting lists, and will send automated emails to users confirming their places on courses. 

All postgraduate research students and postdoctoral research staff should be able to log into Skills Forge using their usual KCL username and password and start using the system from 9am on Monday 20^th October 2008. 

If you have any queries about Skills Forge or the RDP, please e-mail gradtrain@kcl.ac.uk.     

Please note that wherever possible bookings for RDP workshops should be made via Skills Forge from Monday 20^th October.

So long, and thanks for the PhD

A new resource on the ‘Researcher Development Programme – Research Students’ Virtual Learning Environment this week is a successful PhD student’s recollections of their long learning journey: ‘So long, and thanks for the PhD.’

If you haven’t got access to the Research Student VLE, you can also access ‘So long, and thanks for the PhD’ by clicking here. 

Second Careers Podcast

The second careers podcast for The Graduate School is now available. In this podcast, we look at how to get careers advice at King’s, the kind of careers resources that are available at King’s, and the advantages and disadvantages of having a clear career goal.

Just click the link below.

Supervisors’ Conference

In December 2007, the Grdauate School at King’s College London hosted a conference to celebrate and spread best practice in PhD supervision.

A video compilation of the speakers on the day is now available. You can access the video via the new ‘Researcher Development Programme – Research Students’ Virtual Learning Environment, which will be up and running by the start of October 2008.

In the meantime, you can also see the footage from our web pages (click here).

Supervisors’ Conference 2007

In December 2007, The Graduate School hosted a PhD Supervisors’ Conference, to celebrate and spread best practice.

We have made a c.20 minute video of the day, which is available on a video stream via the Graduate School Virtual Learning Environment, which you can link to from the right-hand side of this page (user name and password required). 

King’s Graduate School Careers Podcast

We’ve recorded our first Graduate School careers podcast, in which we look at why postgraduate students should get careers advice, and what kind of advice is available at King’s.

The podcast is the first of a series, in which we will look at a range of careers issues from a postgraduate perspective.

If there are any specific topics that you would like us to cover in future podcasts, please let us know.

You will find the first podcast in the common room area of the Graduate School Virtual Learning Environment, which you can access via the link on the right-hand side of this page (you will need your user name and password).

Alternatively, just click the screen below.

Enhancing your transferable skills

Research Council funded PhD students are now expected to acquire transferable skills, in addition to their core area of research. The full statement from the Research Councils, which details the kind of skills training you should be undertaking, can be found here.

You can develop your transferable skills at King’s by using the online courses in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which you can access by clicking on the link in the right-hand side of this page.

We also have face-to-face courses, details of which can be found in the Calendar section of the VLE.

In the new academic year we will have a wide range of both face-to-face and online courses.

A cure for boredom

Today’s cure for boredom is the fourth episode of 10 Gnomes. You have ten minutes to find the 10 gnomes hidden in the picture. To play, either visit the online common room of the VLE, or click here.

New Online Courses

We have four new online courses for you:

* Career Planning in the Sciences
* Career Planning in the Arts
* Selecting a Conference, Presenting and Networking
* Managing your Research Supervisor or Principal Investigator

We have developed the courses in conjunction with Cardiff University, Durham University, Imperial College London, University College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Reading and the University of Birmingham.

The courses are each around 45 minutes long and contain video and audio features, as well as interactive elements and expert analysis.

To access the courses, link to the Graduate School VLE on the right-hand side of this page and log-on with your user name and password. The new courses are in the ‘Generic Skills Training Courses’ area. 

Future Developments

We want to make our online resources even better for the next academic year. Therefore, we are setting up a small number of focus groups, to explore how we can make our resources more relevant to your needs. If you would like to participate, please e-mail Michael.flavin@kcl.ac.uk . Refreshments will be provided on the day. More generally, we welcome your feedback at any stage.