Currently, despite often having high potential for an academic career, most graduates proceed with non-academic careers. After discussions with alumni and business professionals, we consider it important to provide our doctoral candidates with the opportunity to prepare for this endeavor. To this end, we have planned a course to provide fundamental business skills.

The Bench-to-Business Course will be executed by the Cologne Business School (CBS) and introduces our doctoral candidates to business and management basics such as accounting, (agile) project management, consulting, entrepreneurship, finance, HR management and intellectural property and patents. The course consists of 5 modules spanning the second and third PhD year.

Excursions to industry fairs and companies in the vicinity as well as Alumni days for which we will invite past graduates from the different groups will further prepare students for the job market. This is of course not the only type of non-academic career, and at the UoC, courses to prepare for careers in science coordination or writing, or as translational studies coordinator are available.