People and Organisational Development (POD)
People and Organisational Development (POD) provide a number of tailored courses to support on-going personal and professional development. These range from CV Writing and Interview Skills to Financial Management and Presentation Skills. POD’s Learning and Development Portfolio 2019-20 provides a comprehensive listing of learning and development opportunities from POD and other teams across the University.
The brochure includes a section devoted to courses and workshops for researchers. These are aimed at helping you identify how you wish to move on in your career and develop the skills you need to do so. POD’s training courses in researcher skills are as follows:
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Career planning for researchers
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Developing as a research team leader (Nottingham collaboration)
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Developing as an academic team leader
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Introduction to Impact & Engagement
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Grant writing
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Journal article writing
Details of POD’s training courses for research staff can be accessed here.
POD courses can be very popular and get booked up well in advance. If you have a specific course in mind then please ensure you book promptly.
Follow POD on Twitter: @PODHR
Library Services
Library Services offer a range of resources, subject support, and training courses enabling research staff to develop their skills in different ways. The support on offer includes:
Research Skills
The Research Skills team in Library Services has developed a new suite of training opportunities for research staff, covering areas such as research profile and metrics, literature searching and referencing, open access and research data management.. Visit the Library’s Research Support home page to find out more
Digital Skills
Library Services offer a wide range of training courses in statistical software, databases, spreadsheets and other digital skills. Visit the Library’s Digital Skills home page to find out about the different types of training on offer and use the ‘I’d like training in…’ drop down menu to access courses on specific subjects.
Five ways to raise your research profile
An online document with practical advice on raising your research profile.
Research and Information Skills: online courses
A range of online courses focusing on different research skills are available via the Canvas Gallery.
Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR)
The Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) is a collection of complementary IT resources managed by IT Services that are designed to help research, free at the point of use for all bar those with exceptional needs. BEAR provides a variety of short courses and workshops to help researchers develop their IT skills. The support on offer is detailed in the BEAR Services document, and includes:
BEAR Necessities
A regular workshop aimed at enabling both research staff and research students to get the most out of BEAR.
BEAR Drop-In Sessions
Every month, BEAR offer drop-in sessions for all researchers who are interested in learning more about data management, including registering for BEAR services, best practice in planning for research data management and managing sensitive and personal data safely. No need to pre-book, just turn up.
The Hacker Within
The Hacker Within is a monthly peer learning group for sharing skills and best practices for research computing and data science. In these friendly sessions, peers at all levels of experience share topics useful in our data analysis and software development workflows.
The Carpentries Courses
Carpentries workshops are two days of hands-on teaching and coding, with the aim of providing the attendee with a set of core skills that will greatly aid a researcher. The target audience is learners who have little to no prior computational experience, and the instructors put a priority on creating a friendly environment to empower researchers and enable data-driven discovery. Even those with some experience will benefit, as the goal is to teach not only how to do analyses, but how to manage the process to make it as automated and reproducible as possible.
Introduction to Matlab
MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran. BEAR provide an introduction to Matlab fundamentals via a dedicated Canvas course.
BEAR User Groups
The BEAR User Groups are run by users on behalf of users. The interests of users in various groups are represented by the user representatives, typically but not necessarily one from each school. Their main role is to raise areas of concern with the User Group which could then be brought forward to the BEAR Management Committee.
Please note that there is currently a very high demand for BEAR’s training sessions. Training sessions are booking up very quickly and waiting lists are being used. BEAR are working to improve their booking systems, but please be aware that due to levels of demand not everyone can be accommodated at once.
Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFi)
The aim of HEFi is to support academic staff to deliver effective and innovative teaching througout their careers. It offers a range of professional development and training opportunities to support teaching and learning. Further information can be found on HEFI's Staff Development pages.
Introduction to Teaching and Supporting Learning
Introduction to Teaching and Supporting Learning (ITSL) is part of the University’s PGCHE programme but it is also available as a standalone professional development opportunity for other academic and professional staff who have a student-facing element to their work. It is suitable for early career staff involved in teaching and supporting learning.
The Beacon Scheme
The Beacon Scheme is the University of Birmingham's scheme that is accredited by Advance HE to award Associate Fellowship, Fellowship and Senior Fellowship. It sits alongside the taught programme as a pathway towards gaining a HESA-recognition teaching qualification / recognition.
If you have a role within the University that involves teaching and/or supporting learning, Beacon Professional Recognition allows you to apply for recognition internally through an individual, peer-supported process. All staff employed by the University (academic or professional services) can join the scheme.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is now available for all University of Birmingham staff and students. LinkedIn Learning offers you access to over 13,000 industry-led on-line courses. The courses range from in-depth learning to short courses and they include videos, transcripts and digital badges. They cover a vast range of topics including digital skills, leadership, inclusion, marketing, coding, cybersecurity, music, and many more.
A series of University of Birmingham learning pathways is already available - with more on the way - and these are tailored to the needs of our staff and students. You can also easily create your own playlists.
To activate your individual profile and better understand how LinkedIn Learning works and what courses are available, check out the LinkedIn Learning page on the staff intranet.