PhD Progression: Creating Workforce-driven Flexible Credentials for Doctoral Students

几十年来，博士教育在美国劳动力中的作用一直在发生变化。授予博士学位的人数稳步增加，而终身教授的比例却急剧下降。因此，绝大多数博士学位获得者不会继续担任终身职位，而是会在学术界以外的广泛领域追求各种职业道路，包括工业、非营利组织和政府机构。为了补充现有的博士课程，使研究生具备在各种职业中成为成功专业人士所必需的复杂知识、技能和态度，项目团队创建并试行了一个微型证书培训项目：博士进修。通过完成博士学位徽章，博士生可以获得沟通、管理、自我意识、研究和教学等关键领域的技能，以便在多元化、包容性和全球专业领域有效地服务。博士学位课程中包含的数字徽章系统还允许学生监控自己的进步，并直接向雇主展示他们在专业发展上投入的时间所取得的成果。NSF研究生教育创新（IGE）奖将通过创建一个学术和非学术机构的联盟，支持博士学位课程内容的扩展，使其能够广泛地从劳动力中获得新的整合观点。该项目旨在增加博士学位徽章的数量，并将劳动力视角和评估直接纳入徽章内容。项目团队还将为学生创建指导圈和赞助实习机会。学生将与行业专业人士一起进行短期项目，以应用他们的学习并获得实际的专业指导。这些活动将使学生在学术培训期间与雇主互动，并学会与他们有效沟通。此外，学生将了解STEM博士队伍中的不同身份、背景、经验和专业知识。这些互动也将增加证书对工作人员和学生的价值。实现这些目标将涉及与工业界、大学和波士顿大学其他办事处建立伙伴关系。因此，项目团队打算使用和评估在公平协作框架内运作的财团，以使所有这些合作伙伴公平地参与项目的实施和管理。通过分析从学生、行业合作伙伴和培训师那里收集的数据，该项目将产生和传播以下知识：a)学术机构如何通过自定进度的徽章来加强博士生为广泛的职业生涯做准备；b)专业发展和博士课程的改进如何受到新兴劳动力需求和不断变化的就业市场的影响。数据来源包括：入学（前）和毕业后调查，徽章活动和评估，博士生年度退出调查数据，毕业后就业市场结果，参与者访谈，雇主访谈和调查。项目结果将有助于回答有关学生动机、行业参与、拟议培训模式中的学习成果、就业成果以及参与者和雇主对职业准备的看法等问题。研究生教育创新（IGE）项目专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试点、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛的社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The role of doctoral education in the United States workforce has been shifting for several decades. The number of PhDs awarded steadily increased while the percentage of tenured faculty shrunk dramatically. Consequently, the vast majority of Ph.D. degree recipients will not go on to a tenured position but instead will pursue a variety of career paths outside of academia and in a wide range of sectors, including industry, non-profits, and governmental agencies. To supplement existing Ph.D. programs by equipping graduate students with the complex knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be successful professionals in various careers, the project team has created and piloted a micro-credentialing training program: Ph.D. Progression. By completing Ph.D. Progression badges, Ph.D. students can gain skills in key areas such as communication, management, self-awareness, research, and teaching towards serving effectively in a diverse, inclusive, and global professional landscape. The digital badging system included in Ph.D. Progression also allows students to monitor their progress and demonstrate directly to employers the outcomes from the time they invested in their professional development. This NSF Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award will support the expansion of the Ph.D. Progression content to be widely accessible with newly integrated perspectives from the workforce through the creation of a consortium of academic and non-academic institutions.The project aims to increase the number of Ph.D. Progression badges and integrate workforce perspective and assessments directly into badge content. The project team will also create mentoring circles and sponsored internship opportunities for students. Students will work on short projects with industry professionals to apply their learning and gain hands-on professional mentorship. These activities will allow students to interact with employers during their academic training and learn to communicate effectively with them. In addition, students will get a sense of the diverse identities, backgrounds, experiences, and expertise within the STEM Ph.D. workforce. These interactions will also increase the value of the credentials to both the workforce and students. Reaching these goals will involve establishing partnerships with industry, universities, and other Boston University offices. Therefore, the project team intends to use and evaluate a consortium operating within an Equitable Collaboration Framework to involve all these partners equitably in the implementation and management of the project. Through analysis of data collected from students, industry partners, and trainers, the project will generate and disseminate knowledge about: a) how academic institutions can enhance Ph.D. student preparation for a broad range of careers through self-paced badges, and b) how professional development and doctoral program improvements are informed by emerging workforce needs and shifting job markets. Data sources include: enrollment (pre-) and post-completion surveys, badge activities and assessments, Ph.D. student annual exit survey data, post-graduation job market outcomes, participant interviews, and employer interviews and surveys. Project findings will help answer questions about student motivation, industry engagement, learning outcomes in the proposed training model, employment outcomes, and participant and employer perceptions of career preparation. The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.