Skills Assessment and Researcher Development
Skills Assessment Form
Your doctoral studies at the University of Westminster will involve developing yourself as a researcher as well as completing your project.
At the beginning of each academic year, you should complete the Skills Assessment Form to identify the areas of development you would like to focus on and the activities and training you will aim to complete.
To prepare, we suggest meeting with your Director of Study (DOS)/Supervisory team early in the term to discuss and identify your training and development needs for the year ahead. This will include relevant workshops offered within the Doctoral Researcher Development Programme and taking advantage of other opportunities such as attending conferences and external training.
Your Skills Assessment Form needs to be completed in time for your APR 1 and uploaded with the APR1 submission via the Virtual Research Environment (VRE).
Every year of your doctoral studies, complete a new Skills Assessment Form to identify further workshops and training to further develop your research knowledge, skills, and practice.
Researcher Development
The Doctoral Researcher Development Programme (DRDP) is a suite of free, tailor-made workshops, specialist skills sessions and personal development planning activities for all doctoral researchers at University of Westminster. It has been designed around the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, a tool that helps researchers plan their professional development. This means that all of our provision has been designed to help you explore and develop the wide range of knowledge, skills and behaviours of researchers to support your doctoral studies and future career.
The Vitae Researcher Development Framework identifies the personal and professional values and behaviours, knowledge, and skills of today’s successful researchers at different stages of their career. In 2025, Vitae updated the structure of its Researcher Development Framework, organising it into three connected domains: the researcher at the centre, surrounded by research and the research community.
Planning your Researcher Development
The DRDP provides a wide range of workshops and sessions from which you can flexibly create your own development journey, undertaking the training you need at the time you need it.
During your studies, you should aim to attend the DRDP workshops identified as Doctoral Essentials, as these will cover core skills for your development as a researcher, preparation for key stages of the doctoral process and your Annual Performance Review (APR) alongside important information relating to the requirements of your PhD. The rest of the programme contains optional sessions to support your doctoral studies and further your development.
Our booking platform Inkpath, usefully recommends DRDP workshops based on your preferences, we recommend exploring the platform features. Inkpath will also highlight a selection of free training opportunities offered by other University of Westminster Departments and Services, so we suggest checking regularly to see what is on offer.
To help you plan, on these webpages, we have provided summaries of the DRDP training under the following categories:
- Research Knowledge, Methods and Practice
- Research Management
- Wellbeing, Writing and Thriving
- Communication Engagement and Impact
- Working With Others
- Career Development
- Teaching and Learning
Each workshop listing includes the key Vitae Researcher Development Framework descriptors it supports, helping you identify how it aligns with your development goals.
For self-study, we have also collated a range of resources that support doctoral researcher development that you can access throughout your doctoral studies.