Rethinking impact and skills for graduate students in the arts and social sciences

New cohorts begin every month from October to March, giving students flexibility in choosing when to participate. Over seven weeks for two hours or less per week, participants join a pan-Canadian cohort of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers for a series of interactive workshops designed specifically for emerging researchers. The workshops focus on building transferable skills that are becoming increasingly valuable both inside and outside academia such as navigating conflict, strategic leadership, knowledge mobilization, and more. 

Formerly known as the Graduate Cohort Training Program, this program allows participants to become qualified as Graduate Inquiry Consultants. They then have the option to engage as experts to consult with K-12 teachers as part of a separate experiential program, The/La Collaborative Inquiry, which connects educators with university-based experts to support inquiry-based learning in classrooms.

For a student perspective on the program experience, see below for testimonials from two FASS graduate students who recently completed The/La Collaborative's Advanced Skills for Impact program. 

Barnard V. Krouch

MA, Philosophy

The/La Collaborative graduate training program was an extraordinarily valuable experience for my growth as an academic, but also more holistically as a person.

As someone that studies philosophy, I often find myself accidentally only spending time with other philosophers, and one unfortunate byproduct of this is that the language we use to speak to each other gets so technical and detailed that I occasionally forget how immensely important it is for academics to train the skill of communicating to a wide variety of people. I have all this knowledge accruing inside of me, but all of that goes out the window if I don’t have the ability to translate those conversations into different environments with people of different ages, disciplines, or interests. This mobilization of knowledge is something that The/La Collaborative really focuses on, and I believe it’s a skill everyone should hone.

Something else I found valuable was the confidence I gained in understanding how transferable my skills actually are to work outside of academia. Although I love what I study, the academic job market is a jungle of anxiety, and that anxiety only grows when it feels like academia is the only option. I felt like my skills were so specialized and niche that I can’t possibly succeed at anything beyond this. The reality is that I’ve developed (and will continue developing!) many skills that have use outside the classroom, I just didn’t have the language to articulate exactly what those were.

The/La Collaborative graduate training provides the exact language that I was looking for by going in detail about how skills are much more nuanced than what they may typically seem like at first thought. That helped not only my ability to communicate but also bettered my general sense of self and what I bring to the table and for that I am immensely grateful.