The UNMC Office of Graduate Studies will be holding a retreat on Thursday that will focus on the development of transferable skills, skills that will help graduate students advance in the pursuit of their degrees and their careers.
Barbara Knuth, Ph.D., chair of the Council of Graduate Schools Board of Directors, will be the keynote speaker at the retreat, which will be held at 9 a.m. at the Durham Research Center Auditorium. Dr. Knuth will speak at 9:30 a.m. on “Graduate Student Professional Development: Planning, Programs and Partnerships,” and small group breakout sessions will follow.
“This is a great opportunity for both faculty and students,” said Pamela Carmines, assistant dean of graduate studies. “Dr. Knuth is nationally known for her work on fostering transferable skills.”
Dr. Knuth is the vice provost and dean of the graduate school at Cornell University and the 2015 chair of the board of the Council of Graduate Schools. In her role at Cornell since 2010, Dr. Knuth has enhanced her university’s professional development program for graduate students to focus on supporting students to work effectively with their graduate committees and to foster transferable skills relevant to academic and non-academic career paths.
Since she became dean, all graduate degree programs have articulated specific learning outcomes and have implemented assessment plans focused on program improvement.
“We’d like to encourage all graduate faculty, students and post-docs to attend Dr. Knuth’s presentation,” Dr. Carmines said. “There are many different career paths available for our graduates, both in academic and non-academic settings. Dr. Knuth’s presentation emphasizes the versatility that is developed over the course of an academic career. The well-trained academic possesses skills — time management, creative problem-solving, ability to function as part of a team, as well as others — that all employers value,” she said.