SYMET-13: Theme I: Let's expand out discussions in this forum

Dear all,

The Theme I session is off to a good start, but it seems there is little time to discuss these fascinating presentations. I would like to suggest that SYMET participants ask their questions or make comments here in this forum.

I will start:

I highly valued the excellent presentation by Andrew and Sally on their Manifest for a new curriculum. This framework should be considered by all of us seriously both for development of initial qualifications, but also for professional development when gaps exist.

My question is simple. To what extend do you feel that there will actually be levels of specialization in these skills and not just movement between them by individuals? I appreciate the need for more generalization, but will specialization still be necessary for strong service delivery?

Thanks again,

Patrick

Re: Theme I: Let's expand out discussions in this forum

от Andrew Charlton-Perez - понедельник, 30 октября 2017, 18:39

Hi Patrick

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting to see what Sally thinks but for me at a basic level I would hope and expect all of the people we train to have them. Beyond this, there would be specialisation and as careers develop skills in each area might be updated and refreshed.

As a personal example, in my own specialism of stratospheric dynamics my detailed understanding has increased hugely over the 20 years I've been working in the field. Nonetheless, I've needed all the other skills related to how I conduct and communicate what I do over this period. Those skills (I hope) have also developed, but I would have been all at sea without a basic competence early on in my career.

Cheers

Andrew

Re: Theme I: Let's expand out discussions in this forum

от Sally WOLKOWSKI - понедельник, 30 октября 2017, 20:08

I think we're going to see a real change in expectations from employers and indeed employees over the next few years. People will enter into the university system and then on to employers with very different expectations, indeed, they already are. They will have basic skills sets which they will be able to use at ease which might seem difficult or complex to us know because we're not used to seeing them. I suspect that we'll see a mix of those with in depth scientific expertise and more generalists as we do now, but that the underpinning skills (the latter 3 pillars) will be much more common between the three roles within our field and thus enable people to move between roles. This is enhanced by the expectation that people have an expectation of having multiple careers or portfolio careers in the future.