Career Development Days and PDR

All research staff on grades AC1–AC3, including postdocs, are entitled to use up to 10 Career Development Days per year. This applies regardless of your funding source, contract length (contracts for less than 1 year receive a pro-rate allowance), or Faculty. This policy forms part of the University’s commitment to the Researcher Development Concordat.

You should record how you use your days throughout the year as this will help you keep track and will be useful when it is time to fill out your PDR form or update your CV. You can do so using the PDC’s Recording Form or a form or spreadsheet of your own. Documenting and planning the use of your Career Development Days also forms an important part of the Personal Development Review (PDR) form for Research Staff. More information on PDR can be found later on this page.

Role-related development includes tasks and training that are required to complete your research, align closely with your job description or fit the profile of a research staff role. Examples include:

• Attending conferences or meetings linked to your funded project
• Completing mandatory or technical training (e.g. training to obtain a home office license required to carry out your project)
• Undertaking visits or collaborations to deliver project objectives (e.g. being trained in a specific methodology in another institution)
• Contributing to public engagement activities required for your project
• Activities which contribute to your research environment (e.g. organising symposium in your school or centre, running a journal club, managing shared equipment, health and safety administration etc.)

Career development activities, by contrast, are primarily aimed at your future career and may include developing new skills, exploring options, or gaining experiences beyond your current project. These activities might take place “at work” but are not part of your contracted duties. See above (‘Examples of how CDDs can be used’) for a list of examples, or explore the Case Study Series. Some activities, such as developing a fellowship proposal, may require more than 10 days but your CDD allocation can provide a valuable starting point.

You can also find some further clarification about role-related and career development in the PDR Guidance for Reviewees.

If you need support with understanding the Career Development Days policy, contact pdc@qub.ac.uk and we’d be happy to provide support or clarification where we can. To explore real-life examples of how Queen’s postdocs across a range of career stages have used their Career Development Days, browse our Career Development Case Study Collection.

The PDC offers a range of workshops and events on the topic of career development, view our Workshops and Events page to browse upcoming opportunities. You can also visit the Researcher Training and Development page on the Queen’s Research Sharepoint Site.

The PDC also offers 1-1 career support, which can include career exploration conversations, CV review, help with job applications, mock interviews etc. Contact pdc@qub.ac.uk if you wish to avail of this service.

The CDD policy was originally developed in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences in 2017 and extended to all research staff (AC1–AC3) and faculties by the University Executive Board in September 2019. You can read the full policy document on P&C's Planning your Learning and Development page.

The sections of the new form don't always match those of the previous one, so the content from last year won't perfectly fit in this years' form; this is okay!

Try to keep the essence of the plans you made last year, but don't overthink it. Some areas of the new form were not covered before, so you likely won't have made plans in this space last year; just reflect on what you have actually done when filling the form.

Section 1 (new form):

It is new and short and doesn't really relate to any part of the previous form.

Section 2 (new form):

It is new and doesn't really relate to any part of the previous form. If you have developed an Individual Development Plan (IDP), it will likely be useful to complete this section. If not, you may have to spend a bit of time reflecting on your career goals the first time you use the form (the following years will be quicker). If you don't know which types of careers to pursue, you way want to add 'career exploration' as an option now, and use the planning section to list actions to find suitable career options for you, instead of spending time identifying options when preparing for your PDR.

Section 3 (new form):

It replaces what was covered in sections 1 and 2 of the previous form, but in a different way and with additional considerations.

Transfer of information:

• Transfer the 5 priorities set in section 4 of the previous form to the 'role-related priority or objective' column of the new form.
• Transfer the 4 development goals set in section 4 of the previous form to the new form, either in the 'Associated development / learning activity' of the role-related development section, or in the 'development goal / action undertaken' in the additional career development section, depending on where it best fits.
• You will likely have to add activities that you carried out but had not been planned/captured the previous year, for example some development / learning activities related to some of your role-related objectives and/or some development goals and actions relevant to the 'additional development' section. 

Section 4 (new form):

It replaces what was covered in section 4 of the previous form, but in a different way and with additional considerations. There is no need to transfer anything as this is new planning.

Section 5 (new form):

It replaces what was covered in section 3 of the previous form, with slightly different content (e.g. work-life balance reflections) and additional considerations, such as likely next steps. Refer to the form and guidance document for content.

You'll mention this in section 1 ('specific considerations having impacted the review period') and will focus your preparation and discussion on planning for the future (sections 2 and 4).

You should have set some initial objectives at the start of your contract (including as part of the probation process if you are new to Queen's). These can be replicated in section 4 and would most likely correspond to role-related priorities or objectives. You will have to complete these with associated development activities, which may also have been identified at initial meetings with your manager, and additional development unrelated to your role.

It is OK to leave section 3 blank. Depending on how long you are into your contracts, you may have completed some short-term objectives that could go in it, but there's no pressure to do so.

It is also OK to leave the summary in section 5 blank. You could however use it to reflect on your experience so far and introduce any issue or concern you have to be able to discuss solutions with your manager early.

If you are leaving soon, completing a PDR may feel like a waste of time. It can however be useful to you in some circumstances, and you could use the process to have a discussion around what would benefit you.

Normally, you would focus on the reporting aspects (sections 3 and 5), which enable summarising and finalising your work, instead of planning.

It is OK to leave section 4 blank; depending on the amount of time you have left, you may still want to include a few short-term goals (e.g. related to finishing outputs, passing over to someone else, ensuring the data is saved properly, applying for another role etc.).

It's up to you to let your manager know what you'd like to focus the discussion on. For example, you may want to get additional feedback on your overall progress to your career goal (section 2), or discuss 'next steps' in section 5 if you haven't yet secured further employment and would like to know more about upcoming opportunities in the department etc.

First, THANK YOU for participating in the pilot, the feedback we received was invaluable to improve the form and guidance prior to the full roll-out in 2024!

Very little has changed on the form, and it should be easy for you to use what you provided on the 2023 pilot PDR form to prepare for your 2024 PDR with the new form.

Changes are as follows:

• The instructions on the form have been slightly simplified, clarified and updated based on feedback to make it easier to fill.
• In the table to capture additional career development activities in sections 3 and 4, the columns 'Development goal' and 'Action' have been merged into one, as the difference between the two wasn't always understood. When filling the section 3 using the new form, simply bring together in the same cell the goal and related actions planned in section 4 of the pilot form.
• The actions relevant to the line manager are now captured separately. A table is available in section 3 for the manager to input on progress on their actions (when filling the section 3 using the new form, simply identify the actions listed in section 4 of the pilot form that were directed at your line manager, and place them in the first column, 'agreed manager action'). Now that you are using the new form, such actions will be captured as bullet-points in section 4 during planning.
• The content for the summary in section 5 has been adapted and no longer directly refer to the institutional core values and staff charter, but directly mention work/life balance and your experience at work.

The guidance documents, including examples, have been updated to reflect these changes, and include additional details (notably around funding for development and information about careers outside academia).