Most PhD graduates don’t become academics. Many use their skills for research, as interpreters or purchasers of research, as regulators or policy makers. Others leave their discipline and use their PhD skills to solve problems in other areas. Some students begin their studies planning for non-academic pathways, but most probably “fall” into them during their degree when they discover that these are better suited to their interests or, in the worst case, that PhD candidates greatly outnumber academic vacancies!
We recognise that these students require a different set of skills on graduation, and a range of initiatives to help identify and develop them. The University offers excellent, but very generic, training that prepare graduates for a range of employment opportunities. But the large group of students staying within ecology and evolution benefits from additional training to make them more competitive as non-academic ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and environmental scientists.
The EE program offers four levels of preparation.
- Workshops and round tables
- Informal mentoring
- Placements
- Internships
Ecology and Evolution at Melbourne 