Researcher developers - exploring

our experience set and professional

development

3 September 2012

Jen Reynolds, Hub Relations Manager, Vitae

Background

Help growing professional community of researcher developers better understand needs and career paths Recognise professional qualities of researcher developers Relate to other career development frameworks Provide information about possible career destinations Enable better support of researchers’ development

Provide development and training to meet

needs for wide range of researcher

developers

Define professional behaviours

of researcher developers

through contextualised CPD

framework

Well defined CPD for researcher

developers to enhance careers

Enhanced support and benefits

for researchers

Use AUA CPD framework as

generic starting point

Aims of the project

Empower - individual researcher developers to consider and plan

their personal professional development, either within researcher

development or to move between career pathways

Aspirational - outlines aspects of a researcher developer’s role

both within an institution and in the broader environment

Map key aspects of being a professional in researcher

development (work in progress)

Recognise that roles and development opportunities can be

dependent on institutional structures

Include how broader community contributions, such as working at

regional or UK level, can help to develop aspects of being a

professional in researcher development

Career pathways

Researcher

Developer

Don’t know!

Focus on what I enjoy most..

Academic Development

Executive Assistant/UK Business

Operations Manager

Entrepreneur to millionaire!!

(well gotta try!)

Logistics

Corporate sales and marketing and

management

PhD student

Vocational education

and training

Research teaching,

education management

Organisation

development

Secondary school

teacher Researcher

academic

Staff

development

FE teacher

(PGCE)

Staff

development

Tech transfer

Outreach worker

Researcher

Career aspirations (N=58)

Staff development (13)

Academic (12)

Management - general (7)

Management - related area e.g. graduate school (6)

Researcher Development (5)

Don’t know (5)

Teaching (2)

Careers advising (2)

Research (2)

Different sector (2)

Non academic (1)

Consultancy (1)

https://www.survey.crac.org.uk/rdcareerpathways

Our questions?

How do we articulate the skills we are acquiring?

How do our skills and their enhancement help us on our career

journeys?

How do we develop skills to be a ‘better’ researcher developer?

How do our skills relate to other CPD frameworks relevant to our

future plans?

Approach

Focus groups on the AUA framework and it’s applicability

Reviewed other frameworks

Set up working group

Brainstorm and revision of main categories and sub categories

Draft

Sector consultation

The MAPIT framework so far...

Collaborative development

Wide range of different roles

Five categories

Role ‘aspects’ in 3 levels to

show possible progression

Review of other CPD

frameworks and how they

inter-relate

CIPD

ARMA

AUA

HEA

RDF

Professional and postgraduate qualifications

Others?

Next phase of development

Sector consultation on the draft framework to:

Agree descriptors

Provide detail for each descriptor to define e.g. skills,

competencies and standards

Extend career pathways mapping

https://www.survey.crac.org.uk/rdcareerpathways

Consolidation of how this framework relates to others

Leadership development

Vitae web section and case studies by end 2012

Questions

What is the route in and out of generalist admin, and are the

paths as varied as for researcher developers? How can you

address this?

(add your route in to your current role and aspirational next step

to the balloon diagram flipchart)

Consider the researcher developer framework. Which elements

used in the researcher developer framework apply to your role?

(provide these on a post-it and attach to flipchart)

Questions (discussion)

How are the challenges facing Researcher Developers similar to

those of generalist administrators?

How are you using the AUA framework currently?

How useful is/would be the AUA framework to your

institution/department?

How would your institution/department need to change the AUA

framework to fit?