Whose job is it anyway? Developing doctoral students’ employability skills

Format of roundtable: Point for Debate
Context/background: Australian doctoral students work with two academic supervisors to produce novel research in a three-to-four-year period, are assessed solely on their final thesis and generally undertake no coursework. The success of this system relies heavily on the expertise and support of the research supervisors (Heath, 2002), as well as central university research training and support system (Verdame et al, 2018). With most doctoral graduates finding employment outside of academia, the expected graduate skills go beyond their academic domains and disciplinary knowledge, including practical workplace experience, complex problem-solving, sharp critical thinking, complex project management, effective communication, and an unwavering commitment to lifelong learning (Mowbray & Halse, 2010, Mantai & Marrone, 2022). Despite an increasing focus of these skills in the modern PhD, doctoral graduates are still pigeonholed as specialists, with concerns about their adaptability to non-academic industry settings (Jaeger and Rudra, 2013).