The transition to the next job from a Marie Curie Fellowship is a challenging prospect in an ever more competitive job market. The European innovative training networks OMA and AVA that are both coordinated by the Cockcroft Institute/University of Liverpool have held a joint 4-day Advanced Researcher Career Skills School on the main campus of the University of Liverpool for the networks’ 30 Fellows between 24-27 June 2019.
The School provided dedicated support for a cohort of highly-skilled researchers to help them in their future career choices. External and internal trainers, including long-standing project partner Fistral, provided an extremely broad training throughout a week that targeted the next phase of the Fellows’ careers. They provided advice on CV writing and interview skills, a session on how to write competitive grant applications, as well as information about best practice in science communication and networking. A day-long training about project management in collaborative research projects rounded off an intense week.
Professor Carsten Welsch from the University of Liverpool who developed the training concept as part of the previous oPAC and LA3NET networks, said: “Throughout the week, we focused on the specific skills that researchers need in order to be successful in their work – independent on whether they target a career in academia or industry. The School gave many opportunities to discuss different career avenues, the challenges researchers find in different sectors, and to reflect on how the Fellows can use the skills that they have now developed within their respective projects to boost their employability.”
This approach to researcher training has been praised as an outstanding element of the CI’s postgraduate training activities. The concept has already been presented at a number of national international learning and teaching conferences and will continue to serve as a model for future trainings.
Special thanks go to the Liverpool staff members who contributed to the training and the Project TEAM for their help in the organization!