Get the skills you need to excel in grad school and advance your career.
Tailored exclusively for graduate students, our workshops, resources, and events are designed to boost your skills and competencies that are essential for academic and career success. Whether you're eyeing an academic or non-academic path, our Professional Skills Foundations program, GRADnavigate workshops, and other curated events and seminars from across campus are crafted to meet your unique professional development needs.
Events
To help you more easily access workshops, programs, and training opportunities relevant to your professional development goals, we collect a list of campus or external to create a comprehensive "one-stop-shop" database for you to explore. Our events calendar is updated every term.
GRADnavigate events
GRADnavigate is a series of workshops by Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) designed to answer questions about graduate school and help you thrive in your degree. We'll cover important topics like:
- Planning your degree
- Understanding comprehensive exams
- Navigating supervisory relationships
- And more!
Events across campus
As a graduate student, there are workshops and events across campus to help you develop and hone your skills.
From major recurring events like the Academic Career Conference and Dissertation Boost Camp, to in-person workshops and asynchronous offerings, we've curated a list of all the events and workshops that are tailored to graduate students. These events include offerings from the Centre for Career Development, Writing and Communication Centre, Student Success Office, and more.
Academic and professional development resources
In collaboration with campus partners, we've developed resources about topics relevant to you as a graduate student. In conjunction with our events and workshops, these resources will help guide you through the challenges and milestones of your graduate degree.
Graduate student guides
Grad Skill Enhancement Project
The Grad Skill Enhancement Project (GSEP) is a flexible, self-paced program designed to help graduate students develop key skills to support their academic and professional success in career preparation, leadership, communication, and personal effectiveness.
Whether you’re preparing for a career in academia, industry, or beyond, the Grad Skill Enhancement Project provides a dynamic learning experience that can be tailored to your personal and professional goals. You will have the freedom to customize your pathway, select from a variety of workshops, participate in meaningful activities, and connect with other grads, all while maintaining the flexibility to work at your own pace.
Professional Skills Foundations
Professional Skills Foundations is a program designed to help you develop skills in career preparation, communication, leadership, and personal effectiveness. In this program, you will develop your own Individual Development Plan that aligns with your career goals and complete workshops and events tailored to these events which culminates in a mock interview.
Participation in this program is tailored to you - meaning you have input on the courses, goals, as well as the timeline for completion. Once you complete the program, you will receive a letter signed by the Associate Vice-President, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, giving you a valuable addition to your resumé or CV.
Research communication opportunities
GRADflix
GRADflix is a research communication competition where graduate students create 60 second videos about their research.
These videos make complex graduate research accessible to a non-specialized audience and serve as a way for graduate students to blend their research with creativity while broadening their communication skills, expanding their network, and gaining exposure for their work.
Other research communication opportunities
- NSERC's Science Exposed Contest is open to scientific research in all fields of study and challenges participants to combine creativity and science for a chance to win one of four cash prizes of $2,000.
- NSERC's Science, Action contest challenges graduate students who are part of a research team holding an NSERC or FRQNT grant to submit a one-minute video that highlights the significance of their research in the natural sciences/engineering fields and how it relates to the UNDP's sustainable development goals for a chance to win one of six $4,000 prizes.
- SSHRC's Storyteller Competition invites graduate students to submit a video, audio, text, or infographic about SSHRC-funded research for a chance to win $3,000 and a trip to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council's Congress to present about your research.
Contact us
Our goal is to support graduate students, so we want to hear from you! If you have any questions or concerns related to your professional development journey or any programs and services we offer, please get in touch with us at gradventure@uwaterloo.ca.