“ … unlike 50 years ago when a fully fledged, master craftsman scientist would work in the lab along with his apprentices and journeyman, today’s PI’s rarely get to work in the lab … So the hands-on technical skills that were honed during their apprentice and journeyman stages are worth little to a PI and instead, they need a whole new set of skills – writing, communicating, people management, schmoozing etc etc. Few of these skills are widely taught … which kind of defeats the purpose of the training system.
Snippets taken from http://bitesizebio.com/2010/03/31/does-anyone-know-the-funny-handshake/
