Transferable skills course

Imperial requires all it’s PhD students to take compulsory courses in transferable skils training, so on Tuesday over thirty of us newbies trundled to a conference centre near Bracknell for three days of activities exploring team-building, networking, effective communication, and project management. We were split into four groups and completed a series of timed tasks; some outdoor, others indoor, some active, others cerebral, some structured and others highly flexible. Through these we learnt to work effectively together, to respect each other and to complement each others’ skills. It was great fun but also really nice just to meet other new students. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, since Hammersmith can be a pretty isolating place to work in at times.

On the trip, I also made the effort to stay up taking each night. Usually I head straight to my room after a day of talks but this time I tried not to and I’m glad I did.
On the last day, we were asked to come up with a song, poem or dance to represent the lessons we’d learnt, the skills we’d acquired and the people we’d met during the course. One group came up with this classic verse. Sing it loudly to the chorus of ‘Hotel California’!

“Welcome to the research course in Bracknell
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Smile on your face
Livin’ it up on the research course in Bracknell
You can learn with me (you can learn with me)
And the food is free (and the food is free)”

Like the St John course, I’m not sure how useful some of these skills will be during the PhD (the activities were team based, for example, but the majority of us present spend most of our time working by ourselves), but I did learn quite a bit about myself. One thing happened right towards the end that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.