Training the mindSET

Improving and Internationalising Skills Trainings for Doctoral Candidates in Europe

In our EU project we, as four universities of science, engineering and technology (SET), developed a European core curriculum in transferable skills, which specifically aims at the doctoral level, with a focus on the SET disciplines. Drawing on a survey conducted among our doctoral candidates and on studies involving their future employers, we identified eight competence areas and differentiated 38 transferable skills, which we translated into modules and courses. In the project, we will test our modules in 2020, but appreciate other universities doing the same by using our freely available training manuals. We also invite other universities to benefit from our results in general, which will, in the future, also include webinars, a tool for self-assessment of transferable skills and guidance for coaching on the topic of transferable skills. In concluding this report, we also provide recommendations for other European collaborations and prerequisites for their success.