A key part of keeping doctoral and postdoctoral trainees in STEM research careers is mentoring. Our previous research indicates that mentoring trainees in scientific communication (SC) skill development increases research career intention through two social-cognitive constructs, self-efficacy in and outcome expectations for acquiring SC skills, as well as science identity. While many mentor training interventions exist, no programs focus on developing SC skills specifically. The “Scientific Communication Advances Research Excellence” (SCOARE) program trains mentors to address trainee scientific communication (SC) skill development as an innovative approach to increase trainee research career persistence. The SCOARE training is a half-day workshop for faculty mentors of research trainees at five sites nationally. Informed by previous research, workshop content focuses on practical, effective mentoring strategies to develop trainee speaking and writing skills. Anonymous evaluation data collected after each workshop indicates participant satisfaction and reported positive increases in skills and knowledge in applying new and various techniques when mentoring trainees (skills) and how linguistic bias influences our perception of others (knowledge). This article outlines the research-based development of the SCOARE program, the first two years’ of workshop evaluations showing positive increases in skills and knowledge, and lessons learned to increase participant satisfaction with the program.

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine the use of employee volunteering programs to develop leadership skills.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a series of interviews carried out in ten companies in the north of the UK in 2004.FindingsThe paper finds that employee volunteering programs provide a potentially rich source of learning for team leaders and other volunteers. Such a strategy can encourage employees to recognize learning opportunities for their own leadership skills.Originality/valueThe paper provides valuable information on the development and use of employee volunteering programs.

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What do learners expect?B Being taught something new by someone who is presented as an expert speaker in that area. This usually results in disappointment at the subsequent realization that whilst the speaker was both witty and wise, there are no practical steps which can be realistically implemented.B Being given magic answers to complex and difficult situations. This is another potential area of disappointment when the realization comes that the solution is usually common sense, it is the implementation of the solution which is the difficult part.B The ''tutor'' being the source of learning rather than the group itself, a common negative comment on evaluation reports will be a report that ''I learnt more from the others in the group than anything the course itself.'' How can we influence expectations in advance?B Provide clear and unambiguous titles for programs. Titles like ''Customer service survival'', ''Developing you, developing your business'' and ''Self discipline and emotional control'' may sound sexy and enticing and therefore sell places on the program but their meaning is unclear and makes it hard for the learner to self select.

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