The Humanities Post Graduate Experience: Enhancing and Supporting Postgraduate Career Development

In an increasingly competitive employment market, postgraduates need to demonstrate more than the ‘skills, knowledge, attitudes and experiences that are closely associated with the research process’ (Golovushkina and Milligan, 2013). Indeed, there needs to be greater public engagement by postgraduate students more generally (Savage, 2013). An audit of the current activities available for Humanities post-graduate students to engage in beyond their research, however, has revealed that Worcester research students are largely unaware of the full range of potential opportunities that exist alongside post-graduate study.

To counteract this knowledge gap we have therefore created a guide which includes suggestions and reminders of possible opportunities and relevant websites and contact details for students. Informed by this research we are taking an active role in the organization of the Women’s History Network National Conference at Worcester, using this experience to broaden our skills base. This paper will critically reflect on whether this research and experience illuminates potential new models for understanding employability and CV development in relation to post-graduate students.