Representatives from higher education institutions, the non-academic sector, doctoral students and other stakeholders gathered at NOVA University Lisbon this week for the final DocEnhance event on "Transferable skills in doctoral education".
Officially called "Enhancing skills intelligence and integration into existing PhD programmes by providing transferable skills training through an open online platform", the project coordinated by UiT | The Arctic University of Norway involved several European universities and non-academic organizations linked to employability and innovation. Known as DocEnhance, its main objective is to improve doctoral education, strengthening training in transversal skills and the link to the labour market.
Now made public, the main legacy of the work developed by the consortium of which NOVA is part, over the last three years, was an online platform, in which three courses on transferable skills for doctoral education, validated by students and teachers, are already available.
Accessible here, the platform offers specific training on data management, career management and entrepreneurship, as well as supervision.
Each course is structured in three modules: the first one with online learning resources (such as lectures, tools and case studies), and a set of short videos that can also be used for self-learning. The second module of interdisciplinarity consists of local group work, with exercises and discussion topics. There is also a third module consisting of mobility or internship with regional employers.
The courses are designed as open educational resources to be easily adapted and integrated into existing curricula and Moodle platforms. In addition, they can also be used as self-learning resources for supervisors and doctoral candidates.
Over the last two decades, as the employment landscape for doctoral graduates has changed, the need for their training in soft skills has become crucial so that the knowledge they acquire can also reach non-academic environments.
