Staff news

Online careers course is global success

The University’s first online career management course for researchers has been praised by the judges of a leading higher education award.

Lucy Everett, University of Edinburgh, pictured with Katherine Brewster, FDM and Katrina Gardner, University of Glasgow.
Lucy Everett, University of Edinburgh, pictured with award sponsor Katherine Brewster, FDM and Katrina Gardner, University of Glasgow.

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) – jointly devised by Edinburgh’s Careers Service – was honoured at this year’s Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Awards for Excellence.

Career support

Designed to support researchers in their career management, the four-week course scooped the 2018 Significant Contribution Award.

As well as providing tailored support to research students and research staff, it gives access to those in parts of the world where there is no, or limited, dedicated careers support available.

Global demand

Nearly 3000 researchers from more than 100 countries registered for the first run in February, demonstrating high demand. Of these, 1000 researchers from more than 30 countries actively engaged with the course, and more than 1700 comments were posted.

The award recognises activity which demonstrates significant benefit to the higher education careers and employability profession and/or sector.

The final judging panel said the winners demonstrated global impact, scale and sustainability with a hard to reach client group.

Receiving this award is really encouraging – the feedback from participant and evidence of the impact on their career development was extremely motivating for us – but the recognition from professional peers for our innovative, high quality collaboration is great addition.

Dr Sharon Maguire Careers Consultant, University of Edinburgh Careers Service

The online course is a collaboration with the universities of Glasgow and Sheffield. The next course will run in January 2019.

Relevant links

Career Management for Early Career Academic Researchers MOOC