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Changing career prospects are changing the needs in graduate and post‐doc training
Author(s) -
Feeney Shea E.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.663.3
Subject(s) - workforce , multitude , training (meteorology) , set (abstract data type) , psychology , career development , engineering ethics , medical education , public relations , political science , pedagogy , engineering , medicine , computer science , physics , law , programming language , meteorology
The ultimate desired outcome for the acquirement of doctoral and post‐doctoral training is arguably not just the accruement of scientific knowledge but the development of a broader skill set. Providing training opportunities for those that are entering into careers as early scientists to be successful in areas beyond basic bench work is essential in crafting a productive and ethical workforce but also to accommodate the shifting and highly competitive job market. It can be considered not just detrimental but irresponsible to expect to train graduate students and post‐doctoral fellows solely for careers working at the “bench.” Furthermore, positions in academic research, once the provider of the majority of scientific careers, is at odds with the growing population of scientists granted graduate degrees. Although “alternative” career options beyond the academic research professor is now more openly discussed there is still a need to develop and incorporate skill sets into our graduate and post‐doctoral training that will enable our early scientists to be successful in a multitude of careers and professional situations. These skills transcend just accurate and reproducible performance of techniques but include critical thinking, analysis, research ethics, problem‐solving, oral and written communication, time and project management, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills—skills that are important for almost all, if not all, careers in science but not emphasized in training nearly enough. Additionally, this necessary skill set includes what preliminary results suggest a large portion of students find challenging but is perhaps one of the most important—the elusive skill of networking. Preliminary data includes survey results from graduate students and post‐doctoral fellows asked to assess the quality of training opportunities that are available at their institution and what skills they believe their training is lacking in. This is contrasted to what senior scientists in different careers consider the incoming science workforce lacks. Lastly, different approaches in broaching the gap for skill set development is evaluated to facilitate a change in training that is complementary to the changing needs that graduate and post‐doctoral scientists face.