RGU launches Innovation Skills Programme to prepare students for Fourth Industrial Revolution.New extracurricular, short course delivery begins with programme for the RGU Graduate School.
Robert Gordon University (RGU) is launching an Innovation Skills Programme to equip students with essential expertise for the next generation of jobs and industries.
Covering a range of innovation related topics and projected skills needs, the suite of short courses for students are part of RGU’s commitment to future proof graduates for a lifetime career by offering professional learning for changing environments and differing employer needs.
Professor Gordon McConnell, vice principal of commercial and regional innovation, who designed the programme, explains: “Industry is now looking for graduates who are ‘entrepreneurially-minded’ and understand innovation, so these programmes are designed to ensure that RGU students will graduate from whatever discipline they choose with a strong grounding in these types of skillsets.
“The world is changing with advances in technology and knowledge so it is important that graduates are prepared for transforming employer landscapes and innovative skills needs in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“The new short courses, which are part of a set of innovation initiatives, will include creativity, ideation, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and technology commercialisation. To ensure early talent development, students will also be offered training in key 21st century areas such as leadership and team development.”
All of the university’s innovation skills programmes will be practitioner-taught and practice oriented.
The first of these free courses will run through April and May for PhD students in the RGU Graduate School, and from September onwards they will be scaled across the university and in various disciplines.
Head of the RGU Graduate School, Andrew Lamb, said: “Since the single Graduate School was developed at RGU,there have been many notable improvements for the postgraduate research student experience, as evidenced in the postgraduate research student experience survey (PRES) 2017.
“Now we can add a new element of future skills development for our graduates to help prepare them for what their career might look like now and in the decades to come.”
The new non-credit courses are just the first of a series of new initiatives in the areas of skills, employability, innovation and entrepreneurship that will be launching over the coming months, showcasing RGU’s commitment to drive innovation into its teaching and become a partner in lifelong professional development.
For more information about ‘Innovation@RGU’ initiatives please contact innovation@rgu.ac.uk<mailto:innovation@rgu.ac.uk