Critical Review: PhD Transversal Skills and Industrial Employability in the HIRES-PhD Framework
Introduction
Doctoral education plays a crucial role in advancing research innovation in three areas of academic development and professional growth across global knowledge economies. The employment landscape for doctoral graduates has undergone major changes because academic positions have become scarce while non-academic job opportunities have increased. The PhD employability skills framework now serves as a standardised method that universities and policymakers use to teach students essential competencies that lead to successful career development.
The article “Hires-PhD: A transversal skills framework for diversifying PhD employability” introduces a comprehensive PhD skills framework that systematically identifies and categorises key competencies for doctoral employability. The framework assessment examines three main aspects, which include its conceptual relevance and its research approach, its discovered outcomes and its impact on doctoral education and doctoral training development.
The growing importance of transversal skills in doctoral education reflects the need to bridge gaps between doctoral training and industry expectations. The skills, which include communication and leadership, adaptability and problem-solving skills, help students build their doctoral career. Most doctoral programs do not provide their students with frameworks that combine research training with employability development programs, despite their recognition as an essential requirement.
Summary of the Article
The HIRES-PhD (High Impact Research and Employability Skills for the PhD) model as a structured PhD framework aimed at enhancing the industrial employability of doctoral graduates. The study identifies and classifies transversal competencies that enable students to pursue non-academic careers while they develop multiple doctoral professional paths.
A systematic literature review with thematic analysis was conducted to screen 828 papers and select 39 peer-reviewed studies for detailed examination. The researchers identified 236 transversal skills, which they categorised into 16 groups that belonged to four major themes: Workmanship, Charisma, Empowerment, and Tenacity.
The framework was compared with existing higher education employability models such as DOTS, USEM, MCPHE, and the Researcher Development Framework (RDF). The comparison shows that the HIRES-PhD model specifically targets doctoral students who aim to find work in their field and move into professional jobs.
The results show that doctoral education needs an integrated skills-based framework that combines communication abilities with leadership skills and teamwork competencies, technological proficiency and entrepreneurial skills. The framework functions as a developmental resource that universities and policymakers use to create training programs that meet both industry requirements and the changing needs of graduate attribute frameworks.
Critique
Significance and Contribution to the Field
The HIRES-PhD framework offers significant value to doctoral employability research by developing a complete PhD skills framework that integrates multiple competencies into one unified conceptual structure. The research’s primary strength transforms existing research components into a unified framework that centres on developing essential professional abilities required for doctoral education.
The framework uses transversal skills from doctoral education to close the existing gap between academic requirements and workplace demands. The program links doctoral education to modern job market needs through its focus on essential skills such as communication and teamwork, leadership abilities and creative thinking and adaptability. The research promotes doctoral training reforms because it creates pathways for universities to integrate employability skills into their doctoral programs.
The framework offers useful information, yet its focus on industrial employability requirements creates a barrier to achieving the complete academic and research objectives of doctoral programs. The research must investigate how transversal competencies affect both employment results and academic identity development, knowledge creation, and societal participation in different Doctoral career pathways.
Methodology and Research Design
It employs a systematic review approach, which uses PRISMA guidelines and thematic analysis as its main research framework. The researchers executed methodical assessments of 828 documents, which resulted in their selection of 39 studies as final research material. Thematic analysis enabled the identification and classification of 236 transversal skills into hierarchical categories and themes, which formed a structured PhD Graduate attributes framework.
The structured coding process, combined with its multi-stage analysis method, increases the study results reliability. The use of systematic review software and collaborative screening procedures enhances methodological credibility and contributes to the development of a robust framework for doctoral employability.
The existing strengths of a system, but there are still drawbacks that need to be addressed. The selected studies show a strong bias toward European research sites, which restricts their ability to apply findings to worldwide research. The framework gets its foundation from existing literature research instead of obtaining proof through actual interviews with companies and doctoral alumni. The PhD framework will achieve better global applicability through future research, which will use mixed-method approaches to study different higher education systems.
Argumentation and Use of Evidence
A logical connection between doctoral training and the two main challenges that doctors face in meeting job requirements and employer standards. The HIRES-PhD framework functions as a complete higher education employability model while showing its unique focus on developing doctoral-level skills.
The traditional employability frameworks provide a comparative analysis that enhances the conceptual foundation of HIRES-PhD while demonstrating its function in developing doctoral training reforms. The literature review provides evidence that supports the identification of essential skill categories that demonstrate applicability to various fields and doctoral employment paths.
The discussion requires critical perspectives on employability discourse because it needs to assess the structural labour market conditions and institutional policies that determine doctoral employment outcomes.
Ethical Considerations and Omissions
Ethical integrity through transparent reporting of its systematic review methodology and data sources. The open-access dataset improves research transparency and research replicability and increases the credibility of academic research.
It fails to examine all ethical aspects that affect doctoral employability because it only mentions two factors: academic labour instability and institutional duty to train students for different doctoral career paths. The doctoral employability challenges require more thorough examination through better engagement with these issues.
Writing Style and Structure
It provides information through a logical structure that directs readers to understand its core concepts, research methods, study results, and their resulting impacts. The HIRES-PhD model becomes more understandable through its visual components that show its structure and functions.
The finding shows formal academic writing, which maintains precision but enables researchers, educators, and policymakers to understand the content. The analysis would become more precise through better integration of multiple themes while maintaining concise writing about the PhD skills framework, which needs evaluation across different academic environments.
Conclusion
The HIRES-PhD model provides an organised framework for PhD students to develop essential employment skills that help them acquire essential professional competencies needed by industry employers. The study creates a major contribution to the ongoing discourse about doctoral training reform, graduate employability and new career paths for doctoral graduates.
The research results demonstrate that transferable skills have become essential for preparing doctoral graduates to enter multiple professional fields that exist outside of academic environments. The research demonstrates that universities must develop programs that teach students work skills through interdisciplinary educational methods, industry partnerships and organised development of student competencies.
The framework needs validation through comparative and empirical research, which should be conducted in various geographical areas and academic fields. The study provides valuable insights for higher education institutions, policymakers, and doctoral candidates who want to improve their career readiness while making doctoral education match the changing needs of the job market.
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Reference:
Roy, D., Jiménez López, M. D., & García Álvarez, M. E. (2025). Hires-PhD: A transversal skills framework for diversifying PhD employability. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12:18. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04257-x
Methodology and Research Design