Generic skills training: critical thoughts from a postgraduate student

The CETL was contacted by a postgraduate student who attended a conference on doctoral education. His comments raise interesting questions about the nature and purpose of skills training for doctoral students. The full text is available from the CETL website, and a snippet is provided below. We think his ideas warrant further discussion, and invite you to respond!

"I came to this event with something of (I would have thought typically academic) antagonism towards the 'key skills' approach to postgraduate training. However, after listening to the presentations, I am warming to the ideas discussed, but I believe that the current means of implementing this agenda is highly ineffective.

"The current assessment that postgraduates are lacking in generic skills seems to ave been translated into the idea that post-graduates should have available to them generic skills courses ('managing your research project', 'effective time management' etc). To be frank these courses are not held with any regard by most PhD students. I am certainly amongst this category I believe these courses are at best patronizing, and at worst form an un-imaginative and ineffective response to the lack of generic skill development within postgraduate research. The idea that you can aid a PhD's management skills by sending them on a half day work shop on management skills, in short, ridiculous."

Read more on our website, at http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/cetl.php?page=268