Welcome

Laura Winer, David Syncox, and Martin KreiswirthMcGill University

Enhancing Professional and Transitional Skill Development for Graduate Students and

Postdoctoral Fellows: SKILLSETS at McGill University

• 2008, Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) seminal paper articulated skills and competencies required for “HQP” + necessary for the knowledge economy

• 2009, McGill University embarked on a professional development program using CAGS paper as framework • guided creation of the university-wide program

called SKILLSETS

Background

• Provides and sponsors professional development offerings

• Includes all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows

• Enhances and supplements their disciplinary training

SKILLSETS

Nine Competencies for Success

1. Communication and interpersonal skills

2. Critical and creative thinking

3. Integrity and ethical conduct

4. Knowledge mobilization and knowledge translation

5. Leadership

6. Life skills

7. Research management

8. Societal/civic responsibilities

9. Teaching competence

• Branding: developed a brand for the suite • Surveying and benchmarking: • surveyed existing internal offerings • benchmarked & analyzed peer offerings

• Partnerships: developed collaborations with McGill Faculties, departments and service units

• Model: Hub and Spoke used to centralize workshops resources, offerings – clearinghouse & initiator

Processes and strategies used

• Generosity and collegiality of McGill community • E.g., More than 40 graduate students, 100 professors

and 63 academic administrators have been involved in developing and co-facilitating events

• Partners include: Library + Student Services (internal)• Hospitals (MUHC-Quality Assurance Office)• Gov. of Canada (Canadian Intellectual Property

Office); Sister universities (Concordia, UdeM)

Partnerships

• Improved communication: Web/calendar, direct email

• Effectiveness: measured by three different criteria:• Comprehensiveness – each of nine themes

addressed (over 225 offerings annually)• Attendance: over 2,500 attendees annually• Satisfaction: roughly 90% of participants agree

• Support for critical links: Industry, government + NGOs

Enriching the environment

• Budget: Graduate student employment accounts for roughly 60% of the budget

• Cost-sharing with partner units• Graduate student hiring: five graduate education

assistants annually from a range of disciplines • Mentorship: Students have varied experiences and

training opportunities

Optimized Resources

• Provides value-added experience to the university training environment

• Better preparation of research trainees for their future careers in industry, government or academia

Benefits of program