King's postgraduate research students and postdoctoral research staff can access and book places on the CDS training courses through our online system Skills Forge. For guidance about course bookings, see Booking & Course Availability.
The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Students (PGR237)
Find out what doctoral researchers do to finish on time, overcome isolation, doubt and writer’s block, and enjoy the process, while spending time with family and friends and perhaps even having holidays!
Emotional Agility for Successful Research Collaborations (PGR268)
The intensity of the research environment means you will experience many different emotions. Learning to move through your emotions without getting stuck in them is an essential requisite for your own wellbeing and for working effectively with others. This programme looks at how you can move beyond expressing or suppressing your emotions, so that you feel clearer, more present and better able to respond proactively to challenges that you face. We will look at how group dynamics can trigger an emotional reaction in us and better understand how we can work constructively with others, without being drawn into energy-draining drama.
Navigating Change and Uncertainty (PGR287)
As a result of recent and ongoing world events, you may feel you are dealing with a lot of upheaval in a constantly changing situation clouded with uncertainty. Having changes imposed upon you, you may want to increase your capacity to navigate the process and do what you can to respond in a way that serves you better. This session will enable you to assess your current approaches to change, explore the common processes of change, and analyse a variety of techniques and strategies for coping with change, and developing yourself in the process.
Personality Types in Research Groups (PGR275)
We know that the most diverse teams produce the best work together, and we also know it can be difficult to work with people who think and work very differently from us. The well-established Jungian theory of personality differences offers a tried and tested framework for understanding ourselves and others so that we can be true to ourselves and find synergy with others. This programme introduces the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and explains how personality differences show up in research groups. You will have the opportunity to self-assess your own personality preferences and become more conscious of how you tend to gain energy, take in information, make decisions and approach planning. You will see how your own preferences affect the type of work you enjoy doing, how you like to communicate and how others see you. Working with others who have different preferences you will gain more insight into how others think and co-create ways of working effectively together effectively that you can bring back to your own research group.
Practical Project Management for Research (PGR277B)
Project Management is a key research skill, and evidence of Project Management skills are often what makes any individual researcher ‘stand out from the crowd’. This practical and pragmatic course is ‘the least you need to know and do’ to manage your research as a project, and is 100 per cent focused on managing the sorts of projects that PhD students and Early Career Researchers are managing. It provides the core skills and key principles of research project management, taking project management theory and distilling it into the key practical tools and techniques. We share our pragmatic, quick and easy approach to getting your project under control and delivered on time.
Stress, Resilience and Strengths (PGR288)
This session will help you manage stress better, focus on your resilience when you need to, and create a greater sense of agency, whilst acknowledging and working with the very real limitations you might be experiencing. Having insight into your current landscape, you’ll then work with three specific stress-management/resilience tools, in partnership with other researchers on the workshop. You'll decide what you might do, in your situation, and how to take small practical actions to focus on what you can control, whilst managing your reactions to what you cannot.
Coping with the Stress of a PhD (PGR282)
Through open group discussion, this participatory workshop will address issues that contribute to the emotional challenge of doing a PhD. It will also look at some strategies that can help you cope.
Succeeding with Imposter Syndrome: Why It Matters and What to Do About It (PGR341)
In this workshop we’ll look at the concept of imposter syndrome, how it works and how to overcome it. Using research and practical tips we’ll discover what is and isn’t imposter syndrome and show how it can be turned into a researcher superpower.
Time Management for Researchers (PGR232)
Researchers have many demands on their time but often find it difficult to prioritise those demands and manage their time effectively. The result can be detrimental to a researcher’s work and their work-life balance. This workshop will examine why achieving effective time management can be challenging, how to prioritise your time and protect those priorities, and will suggest some techniques that can help you get things done.
UNIque – For University Women
Step back to understand your career options in and out of the university sector. Explore what is important to you so decisions are based on your values. Get clear no-nonsense advice to help you get that next position. Learn tools to help you set goals and realise them. A blended programme for early career university researchers.
A Sense of Perspective in a Competitive World! Exploring & Overcoming Imposter Phenomenon (CRSD5)
In the high-achieving and results-driven world of academia, we are often too quick to be overly critical of ourselves and believe that we are not good enough. This can be a symptom of Imposter Phenomenon – and it’s very common in academia. From undergraduate to professor, many of the most respected academics wake up convinced they are not worthy of their position and are faking it. This workshop explores why people feel Imposter Phenomenon and will discuss different strategies to overcome it.