Careers Support for Staff and Students

One of IEHC's priorities is to empower and develop our staff, students and teams by providing careers support for staff and careers support for students.

View IEHC staff careers support case studies

Careers Support for Staff

Development

UCL's HR Organisational development team, our Faculty and IEHC aims for staff to thrive by offering a comprehensive set of training courses and leadership development programmes, facilitated by industry leading trainers, as well as online learning and bespoke activities.

• View UCL's HR Learning and Development opportunities

Useful links:

• Coaching and Mentoring
• Secondment Guidance - for applications and advertisers 
• Events for professional services staff

Training

• Mandatory Training
• HR Single Training Booking System
• Organisational Development: for leadership/professional/research/doctoral skills and opportunities for technical staff
• Lynda: free online video tutorials in software, creative and business skills. 
• Peer Dialogue Scheme: open to all staff who teach and/or support students' learning at UCL.
• Unconscious bias training

IEHC Careers Advice Surgeries

IEHC's Careers Advice Surgery is an opportunity for early career research, teaching and professional services staff (including postdoctoral fellows, RA's and PhD students etc) to obtain advice about career development in an informal and confidential setting from two senior staff. 

Book a place at an upcoming IEHC careers advice surgery (password protected)

IEHC Early Career Researchers Forum

IEHC Early Career Researcher Forum (ECF) is an ongoing and expanding programme of regular seminars for postdoctoral researchers and PhD students across the IEHC Departments. The ECF events provide educational and networking opportunities to a wide audience of IEHC staff and students and encourage interdisciplinary interaction.

The aim of the ECF is to integrate the existing and emerging Institute activities for early career researchers.

One of the examples is a series of monthly talks for postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. 

The ECF has organised roughly 30 seminars since 2013. Seminars and workshops have focused on academic job search, authorship and publishing, patient and public involvement in research, using social media in research (including film), how best PhD students can prepare for their viva, and oral and poster presentations. Forthcoming events will address academic career planning and development, mixed methods research, literature and systematic reviews, and other topics which are highly relevant for students and individuals early in their career.

If you would like to participate in ECF activities, share the information about the events at your Department, or suggest topics for future seminars, please get in touch via email: epidemiology-health-care-ecf@ucl.ac.uk. The ECF twitter handle is @IEHC_ECF.

Professional Qualifications and Organisations

• Arena One: for Postgraduate Teachings Assistants 
• Arena Two: for Lecturers or probationary Teaching Fellows
• Arena Open: for professional services staff who support teaching. Please contact Faculty Arena Champion Leigh Kilpert (l.kilpert@ucl.ac.uk) for further details. 
• ARMA is the professional association for research managers and administrators in the UK. Their mission is to enhance the profession of research management and administration, and to facilitate excellence in research through identifying, establishing and exchanging good practice in research management and administration.
• AUA's objective is to assist in the advancement of education by fostering sound methods of leadership, management and administration in FE/HE through education and training. For further information contact Annabel Brown (annabel.brown@ucl.ac.uk), Ruth Carter (ruth.carter@ucl.ac.uk), Katherine Fletcher (katherine.fletcher@ucl.ac.uk) and/or Frank Sowrey (f.sowrey@ucl.ac.uk) 

* Please note, external organisations often require a membership fee.

UCL Networks

• UCL Research Domains: The UCL Research Domains are large, cross-disciplinary research communities that span UCL and our partner organisations, fostering interaction and collaboration. By bringing together a critical mass of expertise, we can undertake internationally leading research in our key areas of strength.
• Populations & Lifelong Health Domain Early Careers Network: aims to inspire and support population health researchers from across UCL who are in the early stages of their career
• Athena SWAN: aims to assist the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in STEMM and promote good practice.
• Faculty Networks [link to section]: FPHS has established six cross-cutting professional networks to connect staff working/interested in the HR, Education, Finance & Research Admin, Comms & Marketing, PA and Research/Clinical Trials. The networks encourage staff to share best practice, facilitate cross-Faculty connections, and empower staff to effect change.
• Communities of Practice
• Green Champions
• Equality Networks 
• Events Network 
• PACT (Parents And Carers Together)
• UCL Astrea (for women in Professional Services)
• UCL Women for academic UCL staff (postdoc and above) in STEM
• UCL Research Domains: The UCL Research Domains are large, cross-disciplinary research communities that span UCL and our partner organisations, fostering interaction and collaboration. By bringing together a critical mass of expertise, we can undertake internationally leading research in our key areas of strength.
• Populations & Lifelong Health Domain Early Careers Network: aims to inspire and support population health researchers from across UCL who are in the early stages of their career
• Athena SWAN: aims to assist the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in STEMM and promote good practice.
• Faculty Networks [link to section]: FPHS has established six cross-cutting professional networks to connect staff working/interested in the HR, Education, Finance & Research Admin, Comms & Marketing, PA and Research/Clinical Trials. The networks encourage staff to share best practice, facilitate cross-Faculty connections, and empower staff to effect change.
• Communities of Practice
• Green Champions
• Equality Networks 
• Events Network 
• PACT (Parents And Carers Together)
• UCL Astrea (for women in Professional Services)
• UCL Women for academic UCL staff (postdoc and above) in STEM

Careers Support for Students

IEHC takes its responsibility to help students progress their career path very seriously and further to the below list of career related support initiatives for students, we regularly communicate career related events, workshops and opportunities to students.

Health Psychology MSc

Given the academic nature of the programme, our students tend to do exceptionally well securing funded PhD studentships or clinical doctorates. As the focus of the MSc is on improving health care and delivery, many students also take up positions within the public or private healthcare sector.

View impact case studies from Health Psychology MSc students

Dental Public Health MSc

Many former students have become chief dental officers, dental public health academics and planners in their own countries.

Many of our completing students go on to work within governing bodies, healthcare institutions and local dentist practices. A large number also go on to academic careers and commence research degrees within their specified areas of interest at various higher education institutes around the world. 

Within the UK, several of our past students are now lecturers in dental public health, while others are consultants in dental public health working at Public Health England.

View impact case studies from Dental Public Health MSc students

Population Health MSc

Students interested in careers in public health, health policy and health care management - as well as associated areas such as heath-related finance, transport, urban and environmental planning would benefit from the knowledge and transferable skills gained during the programme.

Students will gain skills and knowledge in population health, which are core to careers in the health sector and beyond. Optional modules will enable students to focus the development of their skills in research methods; public health and health systems; sexual health and infectious disease; and health across the life-course. Discussion of the policy and practice of population health will make students into engaged and critical thinkers about real-world problems.

Social Epidemiology MSc

First destinations for graduates of the programme include governmental departments, the NHS, universities and research institutions. Some graduates continue their training as PhD students.

Recent career destinations for this degree

•    PhD in Genomic Medicine and Statistics, University of Oxford
•    Analyst, CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information)
•    Lecturer, Hanoi School of Public Health
•    Research Associate, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
•    Epidemiology Consultant, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Careers data is taken from the 'Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education' survey undertaken by HESA looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduating students six months after graduation.

View impact case studies from Social Epidemiology MSc students

Institute Careers Advice Surgery

The IEHC Careers Advice Surgery is an opportunity for students to obtain advice about career development in an informal and confidential setting from two senior academic staff. 

The aim is to create an environment in which we can try and shed light on some of the more opaque aspects of scientific careers, and also to utilise the wide range of experience people across the Institute have accumulated.

Students from across the Institute are invited to book one of two 30 minutes appointments, which will take place each month. 

Faculty of Population Health Sciences Careers Afternoon

Our Faculty runs an annual careers afternoon which aims to introduce students from across the Faculty of Population Health Sciences to different career routes, and skills, qualifications and personal qualities needed to succeed in them.

A typical event involves a panel of internal and external speakers which reflect the diversity of options available to students. A previous years panel included speakers from KMPG, Public Health England, Doctors of the World, Save the Children and AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.

The event will be communicated to students via programme moodle announcements, email and IEHC and programme social media channels.

UCL Careers Service

Whether or not a student knows what they want to do when they complete their qualification, the programme staff and UCL's Careers service offer a tailored service to help advise, guide and inspire students. 

They offer a series of Careers Consultant led information sessions specifically aimed at Research Degree students, which will be useful to students whose aim is either to get a job on completion of the programme or if they are aiming to stay in academia. A range of topics are covered and students are welcome to attend all or some of the events. These include:

• • Planning Your Job Hunt
  • How to Find and Fund a PhD
  • Writing Effective Applications
  • Applying for a PhD
  • Using Social Media with Impact
  • Succeeding at Interviews & Assessment Centres
  • PhD Interviews

Students also have access to the following support via UCL's Careers service:

• Advice and Guidance (one-to-one appointments for CV writing)
• Events and Workshops (careers fairs and sector themed careers weeks)
• Find A Job (UCL JobOnline and UCLAlert!)
• Alumni Profiles

To find out more information on what support is available to students, visit UCL's Careers webpages or UCL's Careers Service Guide (pdf)