US graduate programmes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are too focused on the development of academic-research skills and should be retooled to meet the needs of employers outside academia, a report finds. In Professional Development: Shaping Effective Programs for STEM Graduate Students, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in Washington DC notes that non-academic STEM employers want candidates with transferable skills (see go.nature.com/2m3fkfa). Some of those include experience in data science and big data; science policy; governance, risk and compliance; and time, project and budget management. Just 10% of US graduate programmes actively teach these skills, the report finds. Graduate students often do not participate in professional-development programmes because they feel that faculty members do not value the non-academic career path, and because some federal funding structures do not incentivize broad professional preparation, the report says. The CGS offers an online database of university professional-development programmes that other institutions can use as a model.