PhD candidates are able to attend a range of activities designed to go beyond academic and scientific training and to build skills that improve employability, from a compulsory programme of transferable skills courses, to learning Dutch or getting support on their next career move.
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Transferable skills programme: an overview
The ILLC PhD Programme includes a number of courses in 'transferable skills'. Please see the table below. Most of these courses are mandatory and have a deadline by which you should have followed the course in your personal tracking page, but these deadlines aren't strict. If you have questions, please contact phd-illc at uva.nl.
Registration for all these courses, except for the Introduction, the Teaching skills course and Mastering your PhD, is handled by the ILLC office.
The periods mentioned in the table below are fixed and the same each year.
Please take these periods into account when planning conference or research visits and make sure to be available in Amsterdam.
(except for the course on academic writing, which can also be taken from abroad)In your personal tracking page you can see in which year you are supposed to take which course/workshop.
Aimed at Course Offered by Schedule First-year candidates Mastering your PhD Christianne Vink
(Reflect Academy)- about 6 months after your start
- five 4-hour sessions
Second-year candidates Scientific Integrity Floor Sietsma
(Amethist)- January-February
- one 3-hour discussion session
All PhDs who teach at the FNWI Teaching Skills Faculty of Science - four 3-hour modules
- every month
Second-year candidates Presentation Skills Marieke Hohnen
Tony Maples
(Speaking Science)- February-March
- one 2-hour session
- three 1-hour sessions
First or second-year candidates Academic Writing - COURSERA
- Stanford Online LAGUNITA
- November-January
- 8 units, first 5 are required
Third or fourth-year candidates Career Development Kathy Chaurasiya
(UvA)- February-March
- one 3-hour session
Third or fourth-year candidates Grant Applications* Emil Holland
(IXA, UvA)
ILLC staff member- February-March
- one 3-hour session
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Both the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities provide introductory sessions for all their new PhD candidates shortly after they start.
Introduction at Faculty of Humanities
A link to information about these sessions at the Faculty of Science will be provided later.
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At the beginning of your PhD, you have four years ahead of you and one big goal: writing your thesis. Such a long-term goal requires planning and setting subgoals and milestones. It is no secret that working in an academic situation as a PhD candidate can get very stressful if your time is not managed well. This is especially the case when you are near the moment of a deadline or when your PhD thesis has to be handed in. Experience learns that a lot of students feel there is plenty of time in the beginning of their project, and then get in trouble later on when the end of the four years comes faster than expected.
The course will present a number of (evidence-based and practice based) strategies that are helpful in dealing with issues such as prioritizing, goal setting, attention problems, dealing with distractors, procrastination, project planning, combining different projects or different roles (such as teaching and research), communication with your supervisor, etc. You will also receive help with personal feedback and guidance to incorporate the ideas in your behavior to ensure transfer into new and more effective routines.
The course consists of 5 sessions of 4 hours each and is best taken when your about halfway of your first year.
It is organised by the Faculty of Science, but PhD candidates employed by the Faculty of Humanities should also follow the course.
The ILLC office provides a list of new PhD students to training-science at uva.nl, after which you will be invited to register yourself for this course as soon as an appropriate date is available on the PhD agenda of the Faculty of Science. Please note that this course has a no-show policy: if you are invited for a round and know in advance you cannot make it at a certain date, please contact training-science so they can put you in a different round. If you are ill, please contact them and the lecturer of the course to let them know you aren't coming.
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Against the background of ILLC's "Academic Practice Code of Conduct", this training encourages PhD candidates to reflect on a number of dilemmas and problems that deal with research integrity. We focus on dilemmas that are directly related to a PhD candidate's research situation. Such dilemmas trigger different possible choices and answers.
The participants will reflect upon these choices and their possible consequences. In case of disagreement, the participants will debate upon the best course of action. In this training we play the "dilemma game", designed by Erasmus University Rotterdam.
The course consists of 1 session of 3 hours.
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At a seminar for colleagues, in a lecture hall for students, at a major congress in front of an audience of peers, in front of a small committee to support your grant application, for a radio, tv or printed press interview or even at an open day or to a family audience; as a scientist, you will have to speak in public.
Maybe you're a natural, maybe not. Speaking in public can be a daunting experience. But everyone can learn it, and learn to enjoy it. There are hundreds of books and blogs with plenty of useable tips and sound advice. But there's one thing a book can't give you: the experience of getting up and doing it.
In this course, in a relaxed and stimulating learning environment you'll be doing just that, standing up and speaking. Live, in front of colleagues. Again and again. You'll learn to use voice and gesture, how to structure a story, and how to present with clarity and confidence. You'll learn by doing, but also by observing others, and giving feedback. You'll get tools and tips, but most of all, you'll get experience.
The first class is a 2,5 plenary session. It will cover essential presentation skills, like vocal clarity and articulation, body language, use of gesture and storyline. The next two 1-hour sessions are individual, where you will be working towards developing two very different kinds of presentations; a 5-minute pitch for a general public and a 10-minute scientific talk. During the final 1-hour session you will be working in pairs on either the pitch or the scientific talk.
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This course is offered via Stanford online Lagunita and via Coursera.
The course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, and issues in publication and peer review.The full course is organized into 8 learning units. Each unit takes 2 to 6 hours to complete. ILLC PhD candidates are required to audit at least the first 5 units. The remaining units are optional but they are also strongly recommended, in particular the discussion in Unit 6 on plagiarism and on writing a peer review.
You will get three full months (November, December, January) to complete those course parts that are necessary for the ILLC. By the end of January, you are then required to email a short summary (between 250 and 400 words).
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Your PhD is a career stage where you as a young researcher carry out a number of years of research to deliver a high quality thesis. Whereas daily work is mostly content focused and leads to specialisation, your future may not necessarily be in the same role or field as your PhD project.
This workshop challenges you to put your PhD in perspective in order to learn how you can make the most of your PhD for the future.
- What do you (want to) gain from your PhD?
- The professional value of a PhD
- How can you increase your professional attractiveness?
- How to deal with career development as a PhD student?
This training session takes 3 hours.
Grant Applications (not mandatory, invited by ILLC office)
This course is a non-mandatory workshop aimed at PhD candidates and postdocs who are planning to pursue a career in academia.
It consists of a presentation on grant opportunities and a workshop on the writing of grant proposals. The presentation on grant opportunities will be organised by IXA which provides support for applications, training and advice to several research institutes of the Faculty of Science. The grant proposal writing workshop will be taught by an ILLC staff member, experienced and successful in applying for grants.
The whole workshop is one 3-hour session.
Career orientation support
Are you entering the last year of your PhD? If so, on top of the workshops and lunches offered as part of the Transferable Skills Programme, consider getting in touch with the career service of the Faculty of Science, also available for PhD's employed by the Faculty of Humanities. They offer training as well as individual career advice.
Career service Faculty of Science
ProActief of the University of Amsterdam also organises coaching and guidance programmes, courses and workshops focused on the future career of PhD candidates, postdocs and other employees at the UvA.
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Before or at the start of your first task as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Science, you are required to follow the training "Teaching Skills for PhD candidates" organised by this Faculty. This is irrespective of the faculty you are employed by.
The compulsory part of this training for PhD candidates consists of four 3-hour modules:- 1. You as a teacher
- 2. Didactical skills
- 3. The learning environment you create
- 4. You and the group
You can be exempted from taking (parts) of this training if you have taken some training before or already have experience.
In case you are going to supervise a research project or assist in the supervision of a master thesis, you are advised to also take module 6. Tailor your supervision style.
Important note: there is a no-show policy, which means you should contact tlc-training-science at uva.nl as soon as possible, but at least three working days in advance if you cannot make it to a session you registered for. If you are ill on the day of, please also send them an email at your earliest convenience.
Modules are organised several times a year and you can join when it suits you best. See herefor the modules and the agenda of Teaching/ didactic skills.
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Further Skills Courses
Optional additional skills courses can also be followed via the Faculty at which you are employed.
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English language training
The UvA usually has on offer a few courses designed to help improve English language skills. Consult the Course Catalogue and search for "English" in the "Course" search.
UvA Talen, the language centre of the University of Amsterdam, organises English language courses, such as Academic English and English Fluency. Take a look at their website for more information about their courses and programme. UvA Talen also organizes tailor-made courses for specific groups of people, designed for the needs of that group, using exercises the people in this group deal with in their work.
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Learning Dutch
If you wish to learn Dutch, you may start by following the free online introduction to Dutch organised by the University of Groningen.
You can also take one or several courses at the Institute for Dutch as a second language (INTT). For the programme and the application form, email them through the link below. It will be sent to you by regular mail. PhD candidates are eligible for a reduced tuition fee. To make sure you get this reduced fee, please have the form signed by someone of the ILLC PhD management team.
The ILLC pays for the first two Dutch courses followed by foreign PhD candidates. PhD candidates at the Faculty of Humanities should first ask their Faculty contact for reimbursement.
If you want to take further courses you either pay yourself or you can ask your supervisor if they can provide funding from a project budget. If they agree, please let ILLC's PhD team know and they will arrange that the fee is paid directly through UvA channels. -
Other Courses
In case you and your supervisor agree you ought to follow a skill course that can't be found in any of the skills development programmes (ILLC, Faculty of Humanities, or Faculty of Science) or you need a more tailored skills course, please contact the ILLC PhD management team.