YPARD Europe at the SIMPLE project training course in Vienna, Austria

SIMPLE (Support of International Platform Merging Labour and Education) is an EU project coordinated by the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the CULS ( Czech University of Life Sciences) in Prague.

The project aims at enhancing employability of the partner universities alumni (European, Asian partners) by supporting networking and providing the link among graduates (alumni) and employers; establishing Alumni Centres and Platforms for Cooperation with Professional Sector; improving the curriculum of study programmes at HEIs in selected Asian universities; introducing compulsory internships leading to more practical knowledge and better skills of the alumni and enhancing soft skills of the Asian students.

On October 9th till 13th, 2017 the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) hosted the Erasmus+ project SIMPLE representatives of Asian and European partner Universities for a “Training course for staff of Asian Alumni Centres at BOKU” Representatives from Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic. The YPARD Europe coordinator Libuska Valesova was also present at the event representing YPARD as an associated partner of the project.

The five days of intensive training was aimed at sharing best experiences for establishing alumni centres in Cambodia and to increase the efficiency of existing centres at Indonesian and Thai partner universities and supported the mutual enrichment of universities for inclusion and further cooperation with graduates.

The results of the “Assessment study of examples of good practices of Alumni Centres” were discussed, experts presented the most widely used services in the field such as alumni centres, promotion, social media, internships, and practical experience for organizing events for alumni. The end of the training was focused on the teamwork of European and Asian representatives, which assessed the activities of alumni centres propose concrete steps to make them more effective.
The most important findings and practical experience were summarized and included into the “Assessment study of the examples of good practises of Alumni centres”, available since November 2017 on www.projectSIMPLE.eu.

Picture credit: SIMPLE