Cindy: Hi, I’m Cindy Becker, I work at the University of Reading; I teach careers skills to undergraduates and then to postgraduates in English, where I’m based most of the time, and in history looking at particularly skills training for postgraduates around research skills. And I am also the deputy director of our graduate school for social sciences and there I’m heavily involved in skills training for social sciences but also sometimes for art and humanity students who want to do joint programmes.

Debbie: I’m Debbie McVitty, I’m the training coordinator for the humanities division at Oxford University. I came to that from a DPhil at Oxford and I’ve been in the post for about nine months now. My role is, well originally it was mainly administrative, to organise training but it has become quite a conceptual role in that a lot of it is to do with working out what kind of training should be made available and what models of training are appropriate for arts and humanities students, especially at Oxford. And how training provision at central level integrates with local training in individual humanities faculties.

Cindy: An interesting developing role then

Debbie: Oh yes, it is developing every week

Ross: I’m Ross English I’m the manager of the southeast hub of the Vitae programme and it was formerly known as UK GRAD. The role of the programme I work for is really to help the academic sector to embed skills development for their researchers – by PhD researchers and postdoctoral and research staff. And my job is really to help universities across the southeast talk to each other to find out what sort of skills programmes they’re putting on for their postgraduates and their PhDs. And really help them to find ways in which they can tailor their programmes to really help the PhD students and research staff to development their skills as they see fit. I come from an academic background; I was a lecturer before I took on this role and before that I was a PhD student and a postdoctoral researcher and so I’ve been in all of the positions.