Preparing for flexible career paths in academia and beyond

Many graduate students feel constrained by narrow expectations that doctoral training is supposed to lead to an academic career. In reality, successful careers follow many different paths and adaptability is key.

Careers that build forward from graduate degrees have always been far more diverse than the narrow road leading to the professoriate. Lateral moves from one career to another are increasingly common. Yet, graduate programs train students to go deeply into a topic, not to learn flexibility in an increasingly non-linear suite of career pathways.

Fostering innovation and scientific discovery in today’s fast-changing world requires exceptionally well-trained graduate students and other highly qualified personnel (HQP). But are students receiving the training required to navigate these challenges? Research environments, which already pose steep learning curves, are often plagued by inequities and a competitive work culture. Simultaneously, many skills are expected but rarely explicitly taught.

Strong professional and psychological skills are essential for healthy and successful careers — including strategic, dynamic learning; mentorship (as mentors and mentees); navigating difficult conversations in complex contexts; academic resilience; and project management. Yet graduate training programs continue to emphasize technical and discipline-specific expertise. That approach either neglects opportunities to develop the professional skills critical to a non-academic career or expects students to develop these skills simply by experiencing them.

Moreover, students in graduate programs face enormous mental health challenges. Many students leave academiabecause of the cumulative impacts of burnout, isolation and self-doubt. These challenges take a heavy toll. As Madelyn Joan Swackhamer wrote in a blog post while studying for her M.Sc. in biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland: “I felt like a first grader, proudly clutching a Bachelor’s degree in hand…. I wondered how I managed to fake it this far, and how much farther I could go.” Others similarly describe anxiety about career development and more.

Bridging the training gap

To address these gaps, our interdisciplinary and multi-institutional team has come together to equip students with the skills they need to thrive, while considering their mental health needs.

As our first initiative, we developed LEAD: Lifelong Education and Development. This course and open education resource (OER) is designed to help graduate students build essential professional skills for academic and non-academic careers alike. LEAD focuses on six key areas, each with a dedicated module:

• Strategic learning: Becoming a more strategic, adaptable, and effective learner
• Project management: Organizing and managing research projects
• Academic resilience: Building mental and emotional skills to navigate challenges
• Mentorship: Engaging in meaningful mentor-mentee relationships
• Navigating difficult conversations: Connecting effectively in challenging situations
• Generative AI: Becoming strategic and proficient with GenAI, while working ethically and responsibly

LEAD is designed for learners from any discipline, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and other HQP who work in advanced research and academic environments. The course is also valuable for early career professionals in any sector (e.g., industry, government, academic). Each module is designed to support skill development, while providing authentic activities, projects, and assessments tailored to each learner’s context and discipline. The tangible outcomes include specific strategies, plans, and skills that learners can immediately apply.

LEAD has been offered in multiple formats to meet students where they are, including as a for-credit graduate course; a summer institute with a certificate; and a series of workshops. The modules are also available to learners as a stand-alone, self-paced online course. LEAD includes community-building activities, both in-person and online, with examples provided in our facilitator/educator guide. LEAD also serves as a research platform to better understand and address the challenges faced by early career professionals in advanced environments. As an OER, LEAD modules can be adapted by others to suit their specific contexts.

A step toward systemic change

So far, more than fifty people from five Canadian universities have participated in LEAD. The learners have come from diverse programs of study, genders, and ethnicities. Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: “The summer institute was an amazing experience. I’m already implementing a lot of what I learned,” said one 2024 LEAD participant. “It was an extremely informative experience and a really stimulating and collaborative space,” another participant commented.

More than a course, LEAD is part of a transformative approach to support HQP in developing skills that contribute to more inclusive, equitable and productive research environments. Each module threads concepts of equity and healthy work/study approaches which students, supervisors, employees, and employees can use to improve their learning/working environments.

As a 2018 article on Science.org notes,  “students who are not currently struggling with mental health can be proactive and put themselves in a good position for when the going gets rough.” By incorporating LEAD or programs like it into graduate training programs, supervisors and universities can help to drive a cultural shift toward a healthier and more supportive, inclusive, and productive academic ecosystem. Rather than aiming to merely survive grad school, HQP will be better able to thrive in graduate studies and their careers.

We invite readers to explore, share, and adopt LEAD at their institutions and to share their own approaches, questions, and suggestions.

The authors gratefully thank the students who piloted/participated in early and ongoing versions of this course and gave vital suggestions and acknowledge funding by eCampusOntario, Virtual Learning Strategy (OTTA-53), which allowed LEAD to be developed as an OER and used at scale.