Deirdre Parker Hosts Career Network Meeting

20 Dec 2023

Deirdre Parker is a Senior Career Consultant at University College Cork.

It was an honour to host presentations from colleagues in Koç, Lodz and Malmo at the 2nd Meeting of the UNIC Network of Career Professionals on December 5th, who spoke about their innovative work with such passion and enthusiasm.

19 professionals across seven UNIC partner universities met yesterday, and representatives of nine universities have joined the network including those from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Ruhr University, Bochum, the University of Liège, Oulu University and the University of Zagreb.

B. Begüm Ç. outlined a successful Buddy Programme to support international students at Koç University, Istanbul, a new and innovative extension of their well-established mentoring programme.

Agata Matuszewska-Kubicz shared information on an innovative, open-access Entrepreneurship course provided by the Academy of Entrepreneurship at the University of Lodz and the “Ideathon UniLodz” competition in which student teams develop solutions the key social and environmental challenges posted by the external environment.

Karin Frydenland spoke about the importance of global competence and its importance to the university curriculum, sharing the Certificate of International Merit (CIM) diploma supplement available to students of the University of Malmö as a means of that acknowledging achievement of global competence though a range of learning activities at home and abroad during the student’s study cycle.

Adel Coleman, Clodagh Kerr and Shay Nolan raised awareness of key student development and support initiatives across UCC.

Adel provided an overview of the Proud Ally Student Network and newly developed Resilience Journal. Clodagh described her development of the UCC Alumni Mentoring Programme. Shay spoke about the hidden nature of disability across the student population and provided an overview of the UCC Employability Programme for students with disabilities, which includes internships, mentoring and training initiatives for HR staff.

It was an information-packed meeting! But also a unique opportunity for staff involved in careers and student development work and initiatives to share best practice across the UNIC institutions.

And get to know each other’s work, learn from each other and see potential future connections and collaborations.

Sincere thank you to all of the presenters who contributed. And to those who attended and participated with such enthusiasm.

- Deirdre Parker