Career development support for PhDs and junior academics is an important part of preparation for future employment. The main aim of career development support is to help PhD students and early career researchers:
If there is career support service for researchers at your institution, make sure that it is also available for international PhD students and researchers and that it takes their specific needs into account. As they probaly have neither knowledge of local labour market nor strong professional network in your country they might benefit from availibilty of career advice a lot.
Ensuring accessibility of career advice to international PhD students and researchers might help you to:
Final output: career support services available to international researchers and PhD students.
Major activities: Examples of such services might include professional career coaching, individual career counselling, interactive trainings, workshops, online navigation tools etc.
Improved access to information Improved skills and knowledge
Categories | Profesional & Academic Development |
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Mobility stages | During mobility phase |
Delivery schedule | Continuous |
Importance | Important to have |
Scale of organizational change | ![]() |
Target groups | PhD student/Early career researcher |
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Types of contracts of researchers | Full degree student Employee in training (interns, research fellows, postdocs) |
Career stages of researchers | Less than 6 months 6-12-months of experience 1-3-years of experience 3-10 years of experience |
Lengths of stays of researchers | 6-12 months More than 12 months |
PHASE 1: ANALYSE THE CURRENT STATE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AT YOUR INSTITUTION
The next set of questions will help you to analyse the current state of career coaching possibilities and next steps related to improving career coaching services at your institution:
PHASE 2: BASED ON HOW YOU REPLIED TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS THERE ARE SEVERAL OPTIONS
a. Does your institution offer career service to researchers and it is available in English?
b. Does your institution provide career service to researchers but it is only available in domestic language?
c. Does your institution provide career service but it is only available to undergraduate and graduate students?
d. Is there no career support service available at your institution?
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Time required for practice setup | ![]() |
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Activities of potential career development service:
You can consult REFLEX framework to learn about further examples of activities to be included in the career services portfolio:
Topics to be addressed:
Think about the relevant topics/issues which may be interested for your target group. Write them down at the visible place of your department - researchers passing by may notice what they are looking for. Promote the content of possible consultations through your webpage and social media. On the list below you can find the potential topics related to career support activities.:
If you do not have a chance to offer personalised career support, suggest the online tools PhD students and researchers can use to support their career development. Find some examples here:
Promoting the career service among the PhD students and international researchers
Collecting feedback related to career coaching
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Personnel effort required for practice delivery | ![]() |
Actors involved in practice delivery |
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Partners involved in practice delivery |
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Indicators for evaluating progress/quality of practice delivery |
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Collaboration with external partners:
@EURAXESS centres
You can also:
When planning the content of career coaching the source of inspiration can be an e-book which helps you to explore options outside academia - 10-career-paths-for-phds.pdf (jobs.ac.uk)