Professional Development
A research post at Oxford provides highly valuable experience, but continuous reflection on, and investment in, professional skills development is an invaluable means of enabling career progression as the research and innovation landscape evolves.
Professional development opportunities allow researchers to gain valuable new skills, creating opportunities that will promote employability and increase professional security. At a more macro level, professional development can also help generate new ideas and innovations from which researchers' teams and departments can benefit. Demonstrating a commitment to professional development is also becoming a critical part of securing funds to pursue further research, as funding bodies are increasingly seeking examples of how researchers are investing both in their own career development, and that of their teams.
Here, we aim to simplify and signpost you to the wealth of opportunities and resources for professional development that exist across the Social Sciences Division and the wider University, and to offer practical suggestions to facilitate their uptake at a departmental level.
The Researcher Hub provides an extensive FAQ on 10 days Professional Development time. As such, the resource below focuses instead on the potential benefits of the 10 days and practical ways to facilitate uptake at departmental level.
What does 10 days Professional Development time refer to?
As a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, the University of Oxford has committed to providing its research staff with 10 days of professional development time (pro rata) each year.
What counts as ‘Professional Development time'?
‘Professional development time' refers to any activity that has the potential to progress a researcher's desired career trajectory, broaden their professional opportunities or network, or increase the range of skills they would be able to bring to current or future roles. It expands beyond just training and may include coaching/mentoring, representation/advocacy, policy/public/business engagement and event organisation/attendance (to name just a few possibilities). The Researcher Hub outlines a range of potential activities here: Professional Development Planning for Researchers.
It is, however, important to note that 'professional development time' would not normally include anything that a researcher would routinely undertake as part of their day-to-day role, or any training that they are expected to undergo as a condition of their funding award.
What are the potential benefits of the 10 days?
Continuous investment in and reflection on one's professional skills are vital in order to facilitate career progression and create opportunities that promote employability and offer greater professional security. Clear commitment to the 10 days at departmental level may also offer returns to the department, not just by enabling the development of professional skills from which it will directly benefit, but also by demonstrating investment in employees' development.
What if the 10 days isn't covered by a funder?
While some of the Social Sciences funders (including major ones, such as Wellcome and UKRI) do cover the salary cost of the 10 days, several do not; this is an ongoing and sector-wide challenge, which the University is actively seeking to address through its Concordat Action Plan. In the interim, in the event that the 10 days is not covered by an external funder, additional funding options should be explored within the department, and/or sufficient flexibility should, where possible, be built into project timelines and budgets from the outset. It is worth noting that the salary cost is the primary challenge here, as the University offers a wide range of professional development opportunities internally, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use for research staff.
What are some practical ways to start encouraging uptake of the 10 days in my department?
The following are a range of suggestions for increasing uptake and engagement within your department, which can either be directly implemented (by those in professional services or departmental leadership roles) or advocated for (by research staff themselves).
- Ensure through departmental communications that researchers are made aware of their 10 days entitlement and its benefits – many are not.
- Consider formally incorporating 10 days Professional Development time into job contracts.
- Encourage and incentivise PIs, line managers and those in mentoring positions to support and facilitate their researchers to use their 10 days, so that the onus is not entirely on the researchers themselves – researchers may wish to take this time, but may feel that they need permission (implicit or explicit) from those in a more senior position in order to do so.
- Ensure there is a named individual within the department with responsibility for overseeing and encouraging uptake of the 10 days.
- Encourage engagement with the Social Sciences Division's Funding Digest, which offers opportunities to make use of the 10 days.
- When sending out departmental communications that mention events/training opportunities etc., make it clear where an opportunity counts towards 10 days professional development.
- Incorporate discussion of how the 10 days have been used/will be used into PDR/CDR discussions or 1:1s – and make sure there is a mechanism for following up on this.
- Provide clear support/advocacy for the 10 days from the highest levels of leadership in the department.
- Mention the 10 days at induction events, to set expectations at an early stage that this is part of how the department operates.
- One of the biggest challenges around the 10 days is that researchers often do not feel they can accommodate this time. However, researchers are probably already doing a lot of the activities that count as professional development, so ensure that there is awareness of the range of things that count and that this activity is being captured.
- Ensure that there is an available mechanism (such as the ‘My Development' function in People XD) for recording (and ideally reporting on) use of the 10 days.
Professional Development opportunities from the Social Sciences Divison
The Research, Impact & Engagement team within the Social Sciences Division provides a range of knowledge exchange, engagement and impact training sessions throughout the year that could count towards researchers' 10 day professional development:
