EUROPEAN CENTER FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Providing optimal support for their students and graduates when entering the labour market has become an integral part in the role of higher education institutions. The more institutions can prove the success of their graduates in finding adequate work or founding successful businesses the higher their chances of recruiting bright future students, since the decision for a higher education institution is often related to future career prospects. In that point the interests of HEIs and European policy are aligned, especially nowadays where the financial crisis has shown how vulnerable our markets are and how fast the consequences can be felt - especially by young graduates trying to start their own career. The aim of this application is to acquire the necessary funds to form a consortium of European career services that together form a shared "transnational career service department". This transnational career service will help to cater to various stakeholder needs, all related to building a career or business in a global/European context. We deliberately think career and entrepreneurship together, since we see a lot of potential and possibilities if one connects academic expert knowledge, experienced career administrators and related stakeholders under one "roof" and adds an international dimension. All proposed partner institutions have a strong track record of student mobility with courses and internships abroad. In fact, most institutions have integrated compulsory study abroad periods and obligatory internships (not all have to but all can be done abroad). But whilst we have strong ties in terms of study mobility cooperation, our career services focus mainly on national or even local markets. We want to change that. Students are greatly in need of support structures with comprehensive international knowledge. The consortium is our answer for those needs. It pools resources, shares information on local labour markets, trains local career service staff and connects it with academic experts. This facilitates home students in finding their desired employment or successfully launching businesses within Europe. To achieve this aim we wish to set up a shared online platform and series of workshops, summer schools and network meetings where knowledge is accumulated and distributed in a sustainable way. All measures will be implemented under the common umbrella of “European Centre for Career Development & Entrepreneurship” (ECCE). This creates a "shared" transnational career department and boosts the internal and external visibility of the project. Since employability and internationalization are of such significance to all students and form the core values of our institutional mission statements and internationalisation strategies, the project is of great strategic importance for all business schools and universities involved. To fulfil our requirement for a profound and sustainable enhancement of service we seek to: 1. Internationalize career services & widen their scope of international and academic cooperation 2. Improve career services through specific training 3. Improve student employability 4. Increase mobility of students, teaching and administrative staff 5. Enable graduates to access different European labour markets 6. Enable graduates to build businesses in different European countries 7.Share local resources in order to provide a larger net of knowledge and information for all the students and institutions involved. Results aspired to after 3 years: 1. Every student has the opportunity to access information on labour markets, established application practices, business etiquette and job postings and can expect from his career service that they will be able to provide assistance on an always up to date basis. 2. Every career service has at least one staff member who can provide this knowledge and is able to support students, colleagues and superiors in matters of the European labour market whilst keeping in regular contact with European colleagues. 3. The ECCE is established as a cooperation framework for inter-institutional staff and student development. To summarise: We aim to provide our students with the best prerequisites to smooth the way into international labour markets and to give optimal support in their international entrepreneurial endeavours. In order to do that and to truly recognise and embrace the opportunities for international mobility and flexibility, we will need first rate career service officers who are well prepared, knowledgeable in international affairs and working closely with academic experts regarding entrepreneurship and employment. Students and staff must also have easy access to information and resources. To set up and maintain such a structure at every single institution can be costly and time intensive. However, our project is designed to create a cost efficient and sustainable solution that will be able to deliver the expected outcomes.