“Academic Career Office Reactor”
The University provides support for students in preparing for professional life (professional, personal and social competences) in the form of trainings.
Please describe the case in detailIn particular please consider (a)Objectives of the intervention; (b) Tools used to achieve the project goals; (c) Methodologies applied;
Our Academic Career Office is a beneficiary of a 2-year EU-funded project "Academic Career Office Reactor". Its main objective is to provide support for students to successfully enter the labour market. Target group consists of 400 students and graduates.
Main activities foreseen in the project are:
- Professional advice and coaching
- Counselling on enterpreneurship and starting own business
- Mentoring at the workplace
- Training/upskilling of staff of Academic Career Office
- Upgrading infrastructure of Academic Career Office
- Monitoring of professional careers of project participants
What resources are required for the case?Consider human resources, financial resources, infrastructure, in-kind resources and any other type required.
Resources are ensured by the EU grant
What are the enabling factors making this case successful?Consider institutional support, environmental/social/political factors, etc.
Realization of all planned activities foreseen in the project, avoiding bureaucratic pitfalls (which may happen in EU-funded projects)
Why do you consider this case to be good/best practice?Please consider that a best practice must (a) have a clearly defined objective to increase the connection with the World of Work, (b) address the target groups of the project, (c) be replicable and sustainable, (d) have clearly demonstrated evidence of effectiveness in increasing the connection with the World of Work
Projects of such type are very important in overcoming barriers created by inadequate human and material resources of academic career services. Upgraded infrastructure, upskilling the Academic Career Office staff and experiences of a large-scale training/coaching/mentoring as well as data from monitoring careers of project participants create a "flywheel effect" enabling continuation of such types of activities after end of the project funding (a "critical mass" will be reached).