I'm now into my 2nd year and as I'm funded by the EPSRC I have to go on one of the grad school course either this year or next year. I was just wondering if people on here had been to one and what they though about it, also when the best time to go is 2nd or 3rd year? (At the moment I'm thinking of going soon just to get it out of the way)

I went at the end of my second year. I really enjoyed it, especially meeting other students and finding shared experiences. It broke up some of the PhD isolation I was feeling strongly at the time. The evenings were a lot of fun (going out to the pub etc), the mentors were supportive. We did an excercise where you do a mock application form for a job and then you do a mock interview and get feedback - that was quite valuable. It was also good to think about potential future goals and career plans and practice presentation skills. The only thing is its fairly intensive - I was expecting a bit of a holiday but no such luck! I would recommend it, unless you really hate meeting people and self-reflection (you do quite a lot of both).

ooh thats just answered some of my questions too - I have just started 2nd year and am EPSRC funded, my supervisor wanted me to go on one last year - his words were 'you have a MSc, you are counted as 2nd year, forget what the form says'

but now I have been sent the email about it for this year and am wondering which one to go on - I have never liked these team building malarkies (I have always managed perfectly well without them before)