SFC3 - Laureate ! - Empowering graduate students for jobs out of academia: Seeing all three sides of the equation

Many graduate students find academic work (either teaching or research) as the only path in front of them after completion of their studies. The increased number of admitted graduated students in academia has led to increased competition for open opportunities, and as a result, every year, many highly qualified and talented people suffer from related anxiety that influences their life for a long time. On the other hand, the existing opportunities out of academia is increasing, and there are more people joining the industries or other sectors that showed interest in attracting graduated student. However, the academic attitude, openness, and acceptance towards jobs out of academia has been ambivalent. From one side, it is the graduate student's success that matters to their supervisors and mentors. On the other side, they might be worried that a tendency to work out of academia after graduation may influence the student's productivity, commitment to complete existing projects, etc. Empowering graduate students for jobs out of academia can reduce their anxiety and improve their quality of life. This indeed will have a positive impact on the future generations of students. To do so, we need to understand the existing concerns within the academic environment and find possible solutions that serve all three sides of this equation: the student, the academia and the job sector out of academia. 

We are interested in designing a survey that includes cultural aspects of academic work and the work out of academia in the involved countries and, hopefully, more countries throughout the project. Based on the outcome of the initial survey, we are interested in designing strategies that promote equal opportunities and potentially reduce the existing gaps.