Practical training of academic expertise (9cr)

Evaluation scale

H-5

Objective

On this course, doctoral candidates:
- get a deeper understanding of the specialist tasks of their field of study and the professional contexts enabled by their acquired expertise
- practice and experiment on the applied utilisation of their researcher skills and expertise in the job market
- learn to express and present comprehensibly their own expertise in accordance with the skills and development required by organisations.

Having completed the entire course, doctoral candidates:
- can utilise and assess their acquired expertise in the job market and work as specialists in organisations
- can organise and verbalise the theoretical and practical contents of their academic expertise.

Execution methods

First, you must have a discussion with the supervisor and a representative of the non-university organisation, after which you draw up a plan on 1–2 months of training. The plan is approved by the supervisor and the representative of the non-university organisation. The training includes a written assignment.

In addition to the practical training and a reflexive report thereof, you may perform a verbalisation exercise focusing on the applicability and significance of your skills and expertise in the job market.

The practical training and the related attainments yield 7–9 credits, depending on the extent of the training and the other assignments. For more information, see Requirements.

Accomplishment methods

You may gain 7–9 credits from the course as follows:

Minimum performance (7 credits)
- writing a training plan (describing the operating environment, the task, and the phases, methods and anticipated results of the cooperation, max. 4 pages) and
- working and getting expertise training for 1–2 months (5 credits altogether) and based on this
- reflection on the phases of the training, the position and significance of your own expertise in the organisation, the things learnt in the training, and the possible results of the cooperation.

The reflection is to address and assess the significance of the cooperation to your own research and the organisation (10 pages, 2 credits). The reflexive report may address the contribution of the training/cooperation to the development of your academic expertise and to the organisation, including a contemplative description of the cooperation, challenges, and future cooperation possibilities that emerged during the training.

Additional performance, verbalisation of academic expertise (2 credits):
Additionally, you may perform an exercise on the verbalisation of academic expertise (oral presentation / video CV). The oral presentation / video CV aims to support you in learning to verbalise both theoretical and practical aspects of your expertise to a diverse audience based in business life. Ideally, this can be done in a concise, comprehensible and captivating manner.

The main point is to practice verbalisation as a positive contemplation and learning process. The doctoral candidate will reflect on her/his communicative competence in the form of a written assignment as well.

Literature:

- Beebe, S.A. & Beebe, S.J. (2003). Public Speaking: An Audience-centered Approach. Pearson Education, Inc.

- German, K., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D. & Monroe, A. H. (2013/2010/2001). Principles of public speaking. Boston: Pearson.

- Laajalahti, Anne. 2014. Vuorovaikutusosaaminen ja sen kehittyminen tutkijoiden työssä. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 225. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/43093/978-951-39-5618-9_vaitos29032014.pdf?sequence=1

The verbalisation exercise is received by the university lecturer/teacher of speech communication. You can get help for planning the oral presentation or video CV.

It is required that you agree on the verbalisation exercise beforehand with the university lecturer for speech communication. Contact: University Lecturer Teemu Kauppi, PhD, teemu.kauppi@ulapland.fi

Content

On this course, you get a multidimensional grasp of the professional field covered by your academic expertise and participate in work and expertise training either in the private or in the public sector, preferably outside the university establishment. The training can also be carried out in a non-university organisation as part of a joint project between the university and the organisation. The training is to promote your dissertation process and your readiness to enter the job market. It is beneficial for the doctoral candidate to have a practical training as a new experience i.e. to take on duties without having corresponding experience beforehand.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

After the training and all the associated assignments, the supervisor awards the credits according to the extent of your performance.

Qualifications

You have registered for attendance and are conducting doctoral studies at the University of Lapland. You can take this course earliest in your 2nd year of doctoral studies.

You are personally in charge of finding a training place. Use the Aarresaari service or other contacts as you see fit.