Soft skills for science and industry & mini couses
Becoming a successful scientist does not depend only on excellent scientific research, but additional skills are also demanded. For this reason, several times throughout the year, the IMPRS offers different opportunities for you to develop the so-called soft skills. These seminars are always held in English. Usually, they last for two days and are given by experts from all over Germany.
You will learn tips and tools to boost personal efficiency; improve your scientific writing and presenting abilities; plan your post-PhD career and master confllict situations.
Some examples of courses already offered:
- Career Planning
- Grant Proposal Writing
- Information Literacy
- Leadership
- Networking
- Project Management
- Presenting Professionally
- Scientific Writing
- Teaching
- Time- and Self-Management
- Creativity in Science
- Conflict Resolution
For each course attendend, our students obtain 1 credit point (CP). In general, three CPs are required to fully complete the IMPRS program.
Training opportunities in Magdeburg are vast. Apart from that, the OVGU Graduate Academy also offers several training opportunities.
Furthermore, female scientists in the STEM fields have at their disposal a special course program with focus on the needs of women in science. Those are offered by the OVGU mentoring project MeCoSa.
Mini courses
Do you master a certain topic? Are you enthusiastic about sharing your knowledge with your colleagues and gathering some teaching experience? That is the purpose of mini courses!
Students who are more experienced with certain topics are encouraged to provide lectures or small workshops to their fellow PhD colleagues. These so-called “mini courses” are organized by the students themselves, and the effort is rewarded with 5 credit points (CP). Whenever you have an idea, just write a short proposal and send it to the IMPRS coordination!