PDC Program Aims

This year we will be working to institute a professional development certification program. As it is possible for graduate students to earn a degree at this institution without having done little else but research, we wish to incentivize, give access to, and to manifest centralized training resources on campus so that we can foster graduate student versatility and experience. In addition, we aim to educate students of what potential career opportunities may be available to them upon degree completion, beyond working at an academic institution, and the diversity of skills that they will need to be successful in that career.

PDC Program Justification

(Compiled with great assistance from Michigan State University, Lydia Soleil, and Matt Helm)

On college campuses, graduate students are possibly the single most neglected group of students in terms of services provided for their needs(Woodard, Love, and Komives, 2000).

American graduate and doctoral education has evolved over the course of the twentieth century often in response to circumstances and priorities that had already changed (Golde & Dore, 2001). A major issue among scholars of academia today is how well traditional training of graduate students is meeting the needs of students and society. Data about degree completion among doctoral students is estimated to be 50-60%. There have recently been a number of studies undertaken to explicitly define the state of graduate education, and through these studies, thousands of graduate students, faculty, department chairpersons, and doctoral advisors have been surveyed or interviewed. Critics of graduate preparation suggest that there is a need for reform initiatives citing the following concerns:

• Career and professional development guidance is often missing in the socialization process for graduate students
• Guidance on how students might develop or adapt their professional skills for settings outside academe is not part of the preparation of most doctoral students (Austin, 2002, p.105)
• Graduate students are not asking important questions at key stages, and program administrators are not providing essential information as part of the socialization process
• There is a systematic mismatch / structural imbalance between the number of Ph.D.s and the number of available academic jobs. This is the new status quo (Golde and Dore, 2001)
• Students desire information about career choices, teaching, mentoring, as well as more congruence between doctoral education and the realities of faculty life (AAU Committee on Graduate Education, 2004; Golde and Dore, 2001; Lovitts, 2001; National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, 2001; Nyquist, Austin, Sprague, and Wulff, 2001)
• Ph.D. students are unaware of alternative career options (Gaff, 2003)
• Ph.D.s struggle to crossover to industry, government, and non-profit sectors

Addressing these issues in not a simple matter. Graduate education is a complex system with multiple inputs (e.g., student and faculty characteristics, expectations, and assumptions; program, department, and national disciplinary cultures; financial and other infrastructure resources; job/career possibilities), multiple processes (e.g., socialization, coursework, “qualifiers”, thesis/dissertation proposals, defenses, comprehensive exams, professional development opportunities, work related to assistantships), and multiple outcomes (e.g., successful completion, degree, withdrawal, dismissal).

This system also is impacted by systems delays (e.g., the relatively long period of time to complete a doctoral degree, stop outs, funding lapses, program changes) that complicate our understanding between inputs + processes and desired outcomes. Juxtaposed on this complex educational system, is the reality of interactions between an individual graduate student and his/her major professor/advisor/mentor in a manner that creates its own system with inputs, processes, and outcomes. Graduate programs, then, are integrations of these individual systems into the academic and disciplinary environment defined by the multiple inputs, processes, and outcomes described above for the overall system of graduate education.

The complexity of the system presents a considerable challenge in determining the efficacy of a specific intervention made in order to improve the desired outcome (completion) of a graduate degree, and the skill sets imparted to each student. Further, the ultimate desired outcome of a graduate program, is in reality, a penultimate step in the graduate education process with the final goal being a productive career that contributes to the discipline and society, nationally and/or internationally. That successful career is part of an educational continuum that doesn’t stop with the granting of the degree.

We believe strongly that for a complex system such as graduate education, with its highly variable inputs and processes, there is neither a single solution nor multiple solutions that will “solve” the problem. Further, it is not possible to assess fully and accurately a single solution, given that, in reality, each doctoral student has a unique experience and is impacted by more than one intervention during his/her program.

We do, however, feel that giving access to, and incentivizing professional development, and skills that this training would impart, would better enhance the student experience, both in the attainment of a graduate agree, and the transition and success in an academic or professional environment.

Student Assessment

Our Professional Development surveys and assessment methods seek to answer the following questions:

• What are doctoral student perceptions of their career and professional development needs?
• When do doctoral students believe career development begins?
• To what extent are doctoral students taking active steps to prepare themselves for future professional opportunities.
• To what extent do doctoral students understand what will be expected of them? How are they becoming aware?

The current surveys can be found at the following locations:

Professional Development Surveys

This assessment will identify specific needs and ways to build a career development system that has initial support from key participants. It will also provide information on what students and faculty believe can be most effectively addressed at the departmental level and which interventions are likely to be the most effective. It will also provide Georgia Tech Graduate Departments with qualitative and quantitative data to aid in addressing professional development issues that may aid in degree completion and student preparation.

PDC Program Format

This program will be formatted similar to curriculum based certification programs. It will consist of a variety of requirements aimed at exposing the student to aspects of professional life. There will be three main categories of requirements:

Under each category there will be a variety of optional and required courses, seminars, and training sessions to be determined at a later date. We will aim the program to require no class registration through oscar (no actual credits required) but some courses completed under oscar may fulfill program requirements. Many departmental required preparatory courses will fulfill requirements under this program.

• Technical Skills
  Knowledge and proficiencies required in the accomplishment of specific tasks both fundamental and ancillary to a profession
  
• Public Speaking
• Presentation
• Interviewing
• Writing Skills
• Technical paper writing
• Grant/Proposal writing
• Resume/CV/Portfolio preparation
• Reviewing Skills
• Grant/Proposal/Application reviewing
• Paper reviewing
• Poster/Talk/Presentation Judging/Assessment
• Software and Programming Skills
• Latex
• Adobe
• Igor
• Matlab
• Leading, Teaching and Mentoring Skills
  Proficiency and ability to employ strategies used to both impart knowledge and to guide the development of practices
  
• Teaching and Instruction (TA)
• Mentoring and Tutoring Training/Experience (UROP/PURA)
• Performance Assessment
• Professional and Career Competences
  Utilization of and experience with methods aimed at improving personnel productivity, marketability, and well being
  
• Financial Planning and Budgeting
• Administrative Training
• Academic Advisement Training
• Ethics
• Sexual Harassment Training
• Formal Meeting/Parliamentary Procedure