With only a couple of days to reflect on the 'Distinguishing Religious from Economic' workshop at the British Academy (some very thought-provoking papers, and it was very encouraging to see that my interest in certain historical questions and challenges are shared), it's off to Manchester, or just outside, for the Economic History Society Residential Training Course.

This will be the second residential training course for PhD scholars that I've attended. The first was non-subject specific, a GRADschool led by Vitae, with all kinds of role-play activities, team-building exercises, and inspirational talks designed to open our minds to the potential careers available to us after completion.

The GRADschool seemed more suited for science doctorates (I was one of around five humanities PhDs there out of around ninety in total) but it was good to see that the PhD would not necessarily take me down one path. The main challenge, which the course hit upon, would be proving to non-academics that completing a PhD is something which can make you very suited to a range of challenging careers: it is, after all, a three/four year research project which you manage mostly yourself but in co-ordination with colleagues, it makes you adaptable and responsive, highly motivated, creative, and adept at problem-solving.

I believe this is even more true of arts and humanities PhDs than sciences, which are sometimes though not always more driven by the supervisor, and more methodical. So it would have been nice if there were more arts and humanities PhDs at the course, maybe something Vitae have to work on in their marketing.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the EHS course this week. It'll be good to have the intensity of residential training alongside my own subject matter. As well as my own paper, I've been given one to discuss, and another session to chair. There are workshops and suchlike, but if the two papers I've been given are a reliable sample, the research content of the course will also be very interesting.