The PEP-UP project will identify the feasible features of PhD education programs that need to be emphasized to make engineering PhD graduates more prepared for employment in industry and more able to use their talents and training for the benefit of the economy, regions and society. Eight leading technical universities in Europe, with the contribution of two European companies and regional public authorities want to share experiences, create a task force and develop new tools to provide a more favorable context considering these alternative careers paths for PhD within companies. The anticipated results are curriculum design and its implementation. Moreover, we will have brought a new European dialogue together with universities and companies and increase the European awareness among individual participants. Bringing together students, teaching staff from participating organizations as well as other relevant experts and professionals from the private sector must contribute to a closer dialog and a better awareness of the environment, the labor context and its needs. Generally speaking, it is expected to facilitate the dialog between stakeholders, enlarge the European awareness and contribute to modernize higher education. Several dissemination actions such as the web-portal, multiplier events, workshops, journals and other published means will have a definitive impact on future curricula for PhD students and promote and sustain the results of the project.
Context In Europe, academia cannot offer enough positions to the increasing number of PhD candidates graduating each year. Moreover, there is a growing interest from industry in recruiting doctoral graduates, not only for research positions, but also for positions that rely on creative and “enquiring” minds, which can lead to innovative solutions to issues facing society, from a company perspective. Yet young PhD graduates are unaware of the corporate world and its career opportunities; they are frequently unequipped with the specific necessary professional skills required in industry. As the main organisation leading this project, INSA Lyon created a European collaboration consortium of 8 leading Higher Education Institutions in science and technology (INSA Lyon Grande Ecole and 7 Science and Technology Universities: RWTH Aachen, Univ. Porto,Loughborough Univ, Trinity College Dublin, TU Delft, Politecnico di Torino, Aalborg Univ.) and 2 multinational companies, HILTI and INFINEON. Objectives PhDs Enhanced for Prospects ErasmUs Plus (PEP UP) is a European project (2014-2017) of education aiming at enhancing engineering PhD candidates’ employability in companies. The programme focuses on human and managerial skills (soft skills). The objective is to design a suitable educational workshop to meet the companies’ expectations and make those future PhDs able to express themselves in a language appropriate for a corporate environment. After 2 experimental workshops in Lyon (2016) and Torino (2017), the use and dissemination of the results and acquired experience is now the main focus of this project, aiming at implementing the proposed workshop framework into the consortium’s educational institutions, and also at a national and European scale. Participants Due to the strong pre-existing links between INSA Lyon and the project partners, the creation of the consortium relies on strong engaging partnerships, complementary expertise and a shared holistic thinking approach to the issue of young engineering PhDs’ employability in industry. The joint activities in education and research in the framework of Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, double degrees and being members of the same networks such as UNITECH and CESAER, made a good basis to better know each other and ensure a proper development and implementation of the project within the consortium. Finally, the support from the 2 regional authorities, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France and Piedmont in Italy, represents a further opportunity to foster development, attractiveness and success of European regions. 48 PhD students from the 8 institutions benefited from this workshop; 24 in 2016 at INSA Lyon and 24 in 2017 at Politecnico di Torino. Each institution carefully preselected them in their 2nd or 3rd year of doctoral programme. During the final selection phase, the consortium endeavoured to promote cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary and gender diversity. Main activities In order to address the issue, and after sharing each partner’s good practices and experiences, a task force composed of both academic and corporate experts identified 10 critical competencies required for a better integration of PhD candidates into industry. Based on an innovative pedagogy, a five-day workshop ‘Fit for Industry’ was designed and implemented twice (pilot workshop in Lyon and 2nd workshop in Torino). Seven transnational meetings in each academic partner’s institution gave the collaboration its impetus throughout the 3 years of the project, and ensured the proper functioning of it both in terms of intellectual output and in terms of administrative, logistical and financial management. Communication and dissemination actions occurred in each one of the partners’ countries. Results/Impacts The creation of the workshop ‘Fit for Industry’ with associated framework, and its very positive evaluation from the participants, confirm the synergy between academics and corporates, and comprises the major successful result of this project. 3 media deliverables were designed and developed: Website www.fit-for-industry.com ‘Fit for Industry’ Presentation brochure ‘Fit for Industry Tool Box’ Pedagogical handbook for future mentors Discussions between the members of the project and external stakeholders of Higher Education confirmed the relevance of dealing with this issue of PhDs’ employability in industry at a doctoral education level. The participant organisations enriched and enhanced their reflection of their current practices, and local initiatives of implementing a form of the resulting workshop framework is already in progress at the various partner institutions, e.g. at Lyon, Delft or Torino for instance. Further development of the developed framework is in progress, with the aim of continuing and expanding this network to the rest of Europe, via a more formalised recognition level at the European scale. Undoubtedly the European and intercultural dimension was also a major factor in enrichment.