At the University of Dundee in Scotland, the generic-skills programme has a rather specific aim: to prepare young scientists for a challenging employment landscape. Building on its success, the programme has added a series of lunchtime workshops with truncated versions of some courses that emphasize one-to-one instruction in subjects ranging from tweaking a CV to matching skills and experience to jobs outside academia.

More than 50% of Dundee's life-sciences graduate students and 40% of its life-science postdocs have taken the full-blown courses in the two years they have been available, says training coordinator Christine Milburn.

The courses emerged following the 2002 Roberts report, which recommended ways to infuse Britain's science, engineering and technology pipeline with talent. It emphasized training in soft-skills areas: research environment, research management, communication skills, personal effectiveness, networking, team working and career management. The Dundee programme includes grant writing, presenting papers at conferences and managing projects.

The most heavily subscribed course emphasizes communicating science to non-specialists; its popularity reflects the growth of interdisciplinary research, where chemists, physicists and biologists need to find a common language. Communications coursework is also working to reach the non-scientific community.

The programme works with the university's postdoc and graduate-student organizations to pick the curriculum and refine content, Milburn says. Feedback has been especially positive for courses that encourage graduate students and postdocs to 'map' their skills and interests to different career paths in both academia and industry, then seek training to fill any gaps.

As a result, participants say they don't feel locked into pursuing academic careers; the programme warns them that only a small percentage will land university jobs. It illuminates other pathways, such as media, marketing and technology transfer, says Milburn.

“A lot of people who are taking part in this are looking at a new direction,” she says. “They feel the university is supporting their career, not just their research.” Other Scottish universities are now emulating the programme, including transferable skills courses at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh.