EMLT Bulletin 04 (June) - EN

PROJECT

www.emlt.eu

JUNE, 2015

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EV C M A IS TI EN M O T N IN A M U N AS TCH JO G IV A B ER R AT SI YK TY

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PREVENTING EDUCATION-JOB MISMATCH AT MASARYK UNIVERSITY In this bulletin, we’re gonna give brief information about our partner Masaryk University and its Career Center, in Brno, where studies focusing on Education-Job Mismatch aim to prepare the youth for the work life! Let’s have a look how they overcome this Education-Job Gap issue..

Here, the most important question to ask ourselves should be; What is the best way for me to prevent a mismatch between my field of expertise and my (future) occupation?

It’s as easy as pie: I must make my future employer choose me and not somebody else (me and somebody else, though, is also alright). That means, I choose my employer, not the other way round. How do I do it?

Well, if I am a student of Masaryk University, Brno (www.muni.cz), the second largest university of the Czech Republic with almost 40,000 students, nine faculties and over 200 departments, I can take advantage of the services of the Masaryk University Career Centre. That is the way to become not only one of the 90% of students of MU who launch their careers within 6 months after graduation, but also one of the 78% who work in their field of expertise.

The Masaryk University Career Centre (CC) aids students in finding their first employment after graduation. With this objective in mind, the staff of the CC have created courses that help students develop important skills. They also provide career consulting services and facilitate the contact between students and employers. To employers, the CC offers various recruitment services – brand building at the university; establishing new student contacts by holding events with representatives of companies, or targeted job advertising; and preselection of candidates to their requirements. Šárka Karmazínová, the manager of the CC, sums up its mission: “We enhance the high reputation of Masaryk University as an institution that produces competent and skilled young professionals who are employed at desired positions.”

In workshops of the CC, students develop employment related skills which have been identified in interaction with the key employers of the region of South Moravia, such as Lufthansa, O2, Exxon Mobil or Raiffeisen Bank.

Basically, the CC is engaged in two kinds of activities: for students, there is the JobAcademy as a broad educational platform aimed at employment related skills, and for both students and employers there is the JobChallenge, one of the biggest career fairs in the Czech Republic attended by over 3,000 students and 70 employers every year.

The JobAcademy includes several introductory lectures and a series of workshops. FIY: There are workshops such as “Recruitment from the inside” where students experience current recruitment methods and tests used in assessment centers, or “Impress your boss” modelling behaviour in situations like asking for a pay rise or defending one’s own team. Last but not least, there are lectures and workshops “How to be successful in your area” organized by the ambassadors of the CC with distinguished alumni of the University: closing the education-occupation gap for senior students by way of motivation and example.

Pavla Horáková, career counsellor and psychologist, who is in charge of the methodology, emphasizes that the target group are both undergraduates and graduates entering the job market: “Courses are open to all students of the Masaryk University and graduates up to one year after they complete studying at the university. Courses are focused mainly on students in their fourth and fifth year of study. At this point, they realize they will start working soon and that they might have little work experience.”

And what about the biggest success of this year’s JobChallenge career fair? Tereza Tichá, the project manager of the JobChallenge uniting the three biggest universities of the city of Brno, answers: “There were big market players like Amazon, FNZ, big banks and the Big Four auditor companies were among the exhibitors. We managed to attract a lot of students. As we opened the door of the Richard Adam Gallery, crowds started to enter the hall. Some exhibitors spoke to us during the day and said: ‘We don’t have time for a break, there are so many students here today, we can‘t even go for lunch.’ The second day we received several thank notes via email. I consider this a great success of the organizational team that was combined from representatives of all three counselling centres of Brno Universities.”

EMLT Project Team

[1] https://poradenstvi.muni.cz/media/437492/zaverecna_zprava_uplatneni_absolventu_2009_10_web.pdf, p. 21 [2] http://www.kariera.muni.cz/media/75630/zpravodaj2014_en.pdf, p. 2 [3] http://www.kariera.muni.cz/media/75630/zpravodaj2014_en.pdf, p. 2 [4] http://www.kariera.muni.cz/media/75630/zpravodaj2014_en.pdf, p. 15

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