Inkpath: Logging Your Training

Techne has a subscription to Inkpath which is designed to help you to record your training and development activities throughout your PhD. We recommend that all Techne students undertake approximately 10 days of training per academic year (or 5 for part-time students).

Techne is required by the AHRC to collect an annual log of your training and development activities, and your home institution is also likely to ask for this information. Inkpath allows you to do this in a way that doesn’t involve completing lots of paperwork. We are aware that often your home institution will ask for the same information, and you can easily export what you log on Inkpath to send to your institution as well.

All Techne students are expected to use Inkpath as the primary way of logging training and development activities. If you started your PhD with Techne before Inkpath was widely used, we would encourage you to use Inkpath going forward but there is no need to retrospectively add previous training activities you may have logged in a different format i.

We also use Inkpath as a way for you to book onto many Techne training events.

 

Inkpath Tutorial Videos

Inkpath have provided Techne with a series of videos about how to use Inkpath. The link and password to the videos has been shared in recent emails we have sent you about Inkpath, so please check back through your emails or contact techne@rhul.ac.uk and we can re-send them to you. The videos include demonstrations of most of the points below.

Setting up an account

You can access Inkpath as an app on your phone or tablet, or access the desktop version through a web browser on your computer. Search for the app or go to www.inkpath.co.uk.  

1. When you create your account you must enter your university and use your university email address.
   
2. Once your account is created it will take you to the settings page to enter more information.
   
3. In your account settings click ‘my affiliations’ and choose Techne as your affiliated organisation. You must do this to be able to access Techne events and information on Inkpath. Please enter the start date as the year your Techne funding was awarded (i.e. your cohort year).
4. Techne will need to verify your affiliation. We will do this as quickly as possible, typically within a day or two.
   
   

Training Needs Analysis

At the start of each academic year, Techne will collect information about your training needs and what training you plan to undertake. We use this information for AHRC reporting and to identify common training needs that Techne may be able to address over the coming year.

You need to complete a short ‘skills analysis’ questionnaire on Inkpath. You should complete it when you start your PhD and then update it at the beginning of each academic year, reassessing your training needs as you go along. The Training Needs Analysis is intended to facilitate discussions between a doctoral student and their supervisory team about their learning and development needs, so we recommend that you discuss this with your supervisor.

Please make use of the ‘add comment’ function when answering questions to elaborate on individual skills and include information about the kind of training or development you would like to undertake.

Logging Activities

Once you have created your Inkpath account and completed your skills questionnaire, you can begin to set goals and log activities. These activities might relate specifically to doctoral study or be related to your longer term personal and professional development. You should log your Inkpath activities on an ongoing basis, and particularly ensure that your profile is up to date at the end of each academic year.

Any training activities provided by Techne will be available on Inkpath for you to easily add to your log. You must also create your own activities to log any training or opportunities outside of Techne that contribute to your training and development – we anticipate that this will be the majority of what you log in Inkpath.

Inkpath ‘Skills’ and the Researcher Development Framework

The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is recognised by Techne institutions as the framework which can be used by researchers at any stage in their careers to identify skills and strengths and plan their career development.  The RDF is organised around four main attributes:

• Domain A: Knowledge and intellectual abilities

• Domain B: Personal effectiveness

• Domain C: Research governance and organisation

• Domain D: Engagement, influence and impact

Please follow the link above for more information about these skills.

For every activity that you log in Inkpath, you can select up to three skills that the activity enabled you to develop. You can also search upcoming Techne training by skill to identify training in the areas you would like to focus your development in.

 

What activities should be logged?

We recommend that all Techne students undertake approximately 10 days of training per academic year (or 5 for part-time students). Any training up to 3 hours long would count as half a day, and over 3 hours would count as a full day.

You should add any activities that you think contribute to your PhD study, research, and professional development. The list below gives you an idea of the kind of activities we would like you to record, although it is not exhaustive.

 

Activity	Example
Generic skills courses	Writing skills, presentation skills, project management, negotiating
Academic skills courses	Teaching, making conference presentations, writing grant applications
Research-related courses	Research methods, theory, conducting literature reviews
Language courses	3 week intensive course in Spanish
Attendance at: Conference/exhibition/performance/workshop specifically in area of research	Conferences etc. focussed on the student’s research topic which do not broaden research skills.
Conference/Exhibition/Performance – assisting on the day	Helping with conference registration or setting up exhibition
Conference/Exhibition/Performance  –  organiser	Membership of conference organising committee
Conference/Exhibition/Performance – submission of abstract or proposal
Conferences /Exhibition/Performance presentation	Presentation of conference paper  or poster or participation in performance
Publications (or equivalent practice-related output) – submission of paper or book chapter
Peer review of articles
Work placements or work-related projects	Helping a Techne Partner organisation over a 6 month period with research for an exhibition
Shadowing	Shadowing a member of staff at a Techne Partner organisation
Volunteering/Impact/Social Engagement	Giving a talk on research area at local school or local radio
Undergraduate teaching
Committee membership	Representing students on Techne Management Group or PGR students on University Committee

Exporting your data

We are aware that often your home institution will ask you to complete some form of Training Needs Analysis form and Training and Development logs, as well as Techne needing to collect this information. We hope that Inkpath will make this institutional reporting less onerous as you will be able to easily log your activities throughout the year and download an Excel spreadsheet report that will enable you to use your Inkpath data to easily fill in any institutional forms.