Identifying the Ph.D. students’ needs for career enhancement skills

Abstract

To date, it is observed that an increasing number of Ph.D. graduates follow a career outside academia. The EU-funded CHAMELEONS project aimed to identify and fulfill the needs of Ph.D. students towards pursuing a career in digital and connected health industry. The CHAMELEONS overall goal was to develop innovative educational interventions offered by higher education to build more adaptable, entrepreneurial and employable graduates in both academic and non-academic environments. Thus, a range of courses or educational material provided by CHAMELEONS consortium members, or available in open platforms were identified, organized and offered to 15 students, of diverse background, enrolled in the program through a State-of-the-Art (SotA) toolkit. Two questionnaires were provided to attain information on: (i) background and skills the students recognized as underdeveloped, (ii) students' preferences in terms of interest, reasons, and motivation of selection and skills they aim to acquire using SotA toolkit. Students selected courses not actually improving hard skills needed for their research, but soft skills in the business and career management direction, focusing mostly on creativity, innovation, and communication. Finally, the students mentioned that the drive for their selection was based on self-awareness tools which identified the underdeveloped skills required for a successful career.