Your personal development is a major part of your PhD track. While you work on your manuscript, you also follow training activities.

The overview of training activities that you include in your initial ESP serves as a guideline, will generally not be complete yet. It can be adjusted during your PhD track by mutual agreement. In your annual talks with your supervisor, you discuss whether you are on track and if any changes in your training programme are deemed necessary.

Required training activities

The training programme provides activities to improve academic- and transferable skills. Academic skills help PhD candidates work in an academic setting. Transferable skills are skills that enhance personal development, which can be applied to a wide range of (future employment) settings. For example presenting skills, academic English, time management or career orientation.

There is a set requirement on training activities for PhD candidates who started their PhD programme on or after January 1, 2024. For PhD candidates who started before that date, other arrangements apply. The exact requirements on your training programme depend on the type of PhD candidate you are.

Available training at Leiden University

• HRM Learning & Development: The university supply of courses on transferable skills. 
  The number of training hours to be registered varies, see information in link. An exception is for the Active bystander course. Our faculty applies 5 hours.
• Leiden Learning & Innovation Center (LlinC): Teaching (only for PhD candidates with employee status) and partial BKO certificate. A maximum of 20 hours can be registered for teaching for the entire PhD track, and another 20 hours for the BKO certificate.
• Academisch Talencentrum (ACT): Language courses. A maximum of 20 hours can be registered for the entire PhD track.
• FWN Graduate School: Offers CSC PhD introduction (for CSC Scholarship PhD candidates). Our faculty applies 5 hours for this course.

The institutes offer training activities as well, in particular with regard to academic skills. They may be offered by external organizations. You may consult your institute for the possibilities.

Registration

You can register for courses yourself. For courses offered by HRM Learning & Development, you register using the ‘Register’ button seen when clicking on a course. 

• PhD candidates who are employees of Leiden University can register via the button ‘Register (Staff)’. 
• PhD candidates who have their own scholarships and are guest employees, register using the button ‘Register (Guest/LUMC)’. 

Registration of hours for training courses from HRM L&D takes place automatically in LUCRIS. Any other hours you must register in LUCRIS yourself. Registration of teaching hours (max. 20 hours) takes place by filling in the certificate, having it signed by your teacher and uploading a copy in LUCRIS.