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Office of Graduate Professional Development
The Own Your Future program empowers graduate students to navigate new and emerging career opportunities.
Office of Graduate Professional Development
The Own Your Future program empowers graduate students to navigate new and emerging career opportunities.
Office of Graduate Professional Development
The Own Your Future program empowers graduate students to navigate new and emerging career opportunities.
Own Your Future
Preparing Graduates to be Leaders in the Contemporary Labour Market
Graduate students at Western explore how their academic skills and strengths translate to diverse career paths to harness the full value of a graduate degree. Through our innovative career and professional development workshops, participants cultivate self-awareness and lifelong learning skills that foster lasting professional success. Graduate studies, especially at the doctoral level, have historically prepared students for academic careers; however, the global academic landscape is evolving. Universities worldwide now acknowledge the multifaceted potential of a graduate degree that extends beyond academia. At Western University, we embrace this paradigm shift, and recognize that our graduates possess remarkable capabilities that add value to diverse career pathways and society at large.
Preparing Graduates to be Leaders in the Contemporary Labour Market
Graduate students at Western explore how their academic skills and strengths translate to diverse career paths to harness the full value of a graduate degree. Through our innovative career and professional development workshops, participants cultivate self-awareness and lifelong learning skills that foster lasting professional success.
Pillars
Synchronous Learning
Asynchronous Learning
Digital Badges
The Own Your Future Self-Assessment
Central to the program is the Own Your Future Self-Assessment. This tool engages graduate students in the process of self-reflection to identify areas of strength and areas for growth. A personalized report directs students to learning opportunties designed to build and enhance their skillset. The Own Your Future approach is self-directed; students make decisions about where to invest their time and effort based on their personal and professional goals and desires.
The Own Your Future Self-Assessment also makes explicit the largely invisible language that is necessary to recognize and articulate skills and competencies. Therefore, by participating in Own Your Future, Western's graduate students learn to identify and confidently speak to the skills and experience they would bring to any career opportunity.