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Virtual Tours for Business Culture
Start date: Nov 1, 2016, End date: Oct 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

A recent study (2013) conducted by the Trendence Institute in Berlin points out that more than half of European graduates are worried about their careers, a rate that rises to more than 80% in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The McKinsey report “Education to Employment: Getting Europe’s Youth into Work” (2013) highlights that in Europe, 74% of education providers were confident that their graduates were prepared for work, but only 38% of youth and 35% of employers agreed. In fact, until recently, universities have not dedicated a lot of resources and attention to career services, in part because of an easier employability, due to a stronger market conditions, and since the accountability of institutions is much more related to the training for the workplace, than to the post-graduation phase. The lack of understanding and dialogue between key players (education, young people, and enterprises) lead to another figure which is very relevant: again according to the McKinsey survey, the 27% of employers reported that they have left a vacancy open in the past year because they couldn’t find anyone with the right skills. This means, that even when the jobs are available, young people often are not suitable for open positions. The link between Education and the labour market should be addressed, and career services can play a major role in improving transition between education and labour market: a preliminary analysis on the topic highlighted common problems, such as:• Students are not enough prepared in understanding the competences needed to play professional roles: they often have information about the specific competences required, but they have not the awareness about how the role of the professional is carried out (i.e. soft skills);• Students are not familiar with the world of work, so that they have not clear in mind what mean in facts working settings and environments;• Students often lack of self-awareness with respect to their own skills, particularly in relation to professional career they wish to undertake.The need of dialogue between Education and enterprises is therefore not related only to placement: placement is a consequence of candidates suitable to job vacancies, rather than a simple matching between degrees and job posts. Career offices have worked since years to foster mobility through internship and traineeships, in order to enhance dialogue between academia and enterprises to one side, and to foster self-awareness and development of soft-skills and transversal competences in students to the other side. Within this process, sustainability should be also taken into consideration: students should be equipped with self-reflection and self-assessment skills, they should therefore acquire career development skills; however they should also be offered with opportunities to understand professions, and which competences professional roles imply in real contexts. This mean that students should have the opportunity to talk with enterprises before interviews for internship, or work.The V-TOURS project is aimed at increasing and improving opportunities of dialogue between university students and enterprises, by creating a virtual place where access•Online course focused on business culture and work ethics, by addressing e.g. Research and innovation, Integrated Quality (Quality - Environment - Safety), Corporate social responsibility, Company organization, Roles , tasks and competences within the company, Strategic transversal competences etc.;• Opportunities to participate virtual tours in the companies, as online events where the company managers will present organisation and processes of their organisation, being available to answer questions in real time (this will be organised for small groups of students, who had already benefitted from online resources available for the company), and the recording of previous tours;• Self-reflection and self-assessment exercises for the students, in relation to professional profiles addressed by the interviews carried out during the virtual tours, and to business culture and work ethics.The V-TOURS platform will made available a relevant set of learning opportunities fostering understanding of work environments; promoting acquisition of career development skills; improving employability of students; facilitating mobility, as all developed resources will be translated in English (including translation of videos); supporting employer branding from an enterprise point of view.
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