In the Babel choir a spaniard tone

Quality Matters

2012-02-17T07:54:00.001-08:00

Another week more, I have reasons to congratúlate my team about a new success. This time because we get renew our Matrix quality standars acreditation, I can extend this congratulation to our collegues of Student Service, because they get as well!

Quality is a property we give to things and what indicate hight efficiency in the achievement of goals, we need in this case (a service) analyse process, lidership and his management, the use of resorces, service delivery and continous quality improvement.

All this give me to ask myself about quality developing our profesional career and i reflected about some aspects. Firstly, we can highlight the importance about to have delimitated our goals (we only can know if we are getting our goals if we have this goals, Only approach or moved away of their goals who knows what this are!). laterly is very important to do a good analysis about the enviroment we move in, and make a plan to develop those weakness we could have (for example, if we want to work as a lawyer in the future, and we are studying laws, and we are shy, and we have panic to talk in public, maybe could be a good idia to profit we need to work, if is our case, to try to get a part-time job in in customer service), also, in the long walk to get our goals we must to stop and measure our process and try to improve it!. Is other good idea to start doing links or just follow success people in our subject, could be a good way to learn about quality behaviour!

From Careers and Employability service can help you in this, you can find with us information, inspiration, guidance, vacancies and helping building your Cvs, job interviews, etc so Don’t hesítate and be sure you have high standars of quality first to face the hard labour market! Use us!

This time I give you some adive making careers decision from Donald Trump!

Move yourself, contact, get inspired!

2012-02-03T04:32:00.000-08:00

The last week we could enjoy Creative Futures Event in City Campus as well in Caerleon. I would like to take advantage to congratulate my team, specially @JingLu (employer advisor) on the success of this event. During its course we could be informed about the labour market in the creative industry and inspiration with a lot of stories about creative entrepreneurs (I found it particularly inspiring Mike Jordan –business director of Bluegg Creative- and Emma Price –freelancer consultant- presentations).

We also could enjoy this event with the help of Anna Murray who was with us doing her placement week, I was so glad to chat with her. If we plus any personal contacts I had recently (friends and family) or the watching of some documentary about neuroscience (where I learnt that some memories are not stored in neurons but they are stored in the connexions between this neurons – If I remember well it calls Synapses). All this things plus my knowledge about the labour Market did me reflect about the words what inspiring my post of today.

We (humans) are social by nature, so we are prepared to socialise and this give us to create one social model organisation who become us interdependent (as we discussed last night in home about the healthy system), in order to this for us it is essential to be in contact with others. Because this is necessary to move, don’t be static, be all the time changing, adaptation and inspiring to self motivate. I can talk in my personal point of view, because I realise about all the task I do everyday, even more I think there is one person behind my actions I feel more motivate, the work that this service does give me the possibility to analyze how is so important to link (in our case students whit employers), so we are not important in itself, the important thing is the relationships that we could do and the help we give to students to have relations in a more effective way with labour market. Finally, inspiration is very important, above all to do different things, and if you want to improve or create something you need get inspired (in my case, I discover I have more inspiration when I chat with someone during 10 minutes than trying to have inspiration in front of my computer, is for this I need to improve my English! To be able to speak better with people!)

To finish I would like to show you one video about the event “creative Futures” (congratulations to Mei Lewis for this great job!) what I started talking about, if you like, pay attention to us, we are running more! I let you know…

Creative Futures 2012 Newport University from Mei Lewis on Vimeo.

Ps. Yesterday @Lloydwilliams (Careers Advisor) was trying to help one student whit his possible application to one Leonardo Grant in Turkey, I have the chance to give some advise to him (European Volunteering Service), and we give to the conclusion he was inspiring by some Erasmus and Leonardo Students that he has as a friends, that it is what I am talking about!

Taking Advantage of…

2012-01-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

Making the most of the things I need to do I decided to post my medial report of my grant becase this blog was born with vocation to stay, but having how his first duty to promotion periods like I am enjoying. And I love to do this because I can kill two birds whit one stone (and I love this).

In general I am very happy with my experience since now in every sense. Firstly because I think my English in improving a lot, in fact this week (the second since I come back from Christmas holidays) I think I made a qualitative leap (some people say me this and I noted!) thus summarizing, later of a piece of months when at the beginning was hard and at the eng exhausting, the holidays I think was very good for me because I come back whit fresh start. To study in the website platform “Tell me more” (as a part of the grant) sometimes could be somewhat difficult because everyday I need to spend minimum 2 hours travelling in bus to work (because I live in Cardiff, being the University where I work in in Newport, specifically in Caerleon Campus is when the library when is located the office of the Careers and Employability service of which I am part), if we plus eight hours of work and the dayly duties in home, the result is I have a very few time, but even so, this month I am trying to go on in the minimum hours I need to do (thanks to the sausages that my grandmother give to bring with me, ehich permiss me to eat something easily), in relation to personal relationships I am also very happy because from my house (where I live with Vaida Andrijauskaite who is Graduate school administrator in University and her boyfriend Dan, I am learning a lot of think from them and I feel very confortable living with them) to the office (where I share space with all my colleagues of tem Careers team Sharon, Jing, Kate, Shally and Lloyd and building beside of my housemate Vaida –in the trird floor- with all the team of library, all of them very nice and friendly people: so I feel very integrated into the environment in which I move everyday, I only sorry not being able to go to the christmast dinner because I was cold).

Finally in the professional scope I am very happy, because I am where I wanted to be and it is being how I wanted or better. In the first place appreciation that people confidence in me despite the obvious difficulties of my ignorance (every time less, but still big) of the language, I am part of the meetings, informal chats about the ongoing of the service. My colleagues give me all the help I could need even I am part of the training plan for the new workers of the University (in which I assisted to a seminar about “effective review” and I have plan to assist to “An introduction to commercial&external services” and “customer relationship” the next week and some more in my long stay here) I also going to assist to a course about “Management”. At the beginning of my internship I did “shadowing” to all my team colleagues and to David Hodgings (Head of GoWales department wich manage placements scheme of the Welsh Geverment) and to Lawrence M Wilson (Head of student services) with whom I taken part of the interview of the new chaplain William Ritchie I would like to give the welcome.

Inside of my day to day task, I import the vacancies employers input in our system, I input vacancies what we received and I look for part-time jobs for our students, I also help with tasks that may arise inside the service or maybe in the events or presentations (for example promoting) of the service. I try to use twitter to have interesting information to contribute to my team and I write in this blog (what is promoted by my service in his website) when I try to talk about my experience and give my point of view about career and employability development. Now we are plan to introduce some time in the library main desk (to have more contact with students and improve my speaking skills).

Apart from these routine tasks, I am part of several projects (some of them cross, which affect several departments of the university):

Abroad opportunities: the goal of this project is to promote some kind of abroad experience who can improve the employability of students (gap years, volunteering, internships, study or work). Inside of this project I am doing a questionnaire around the students (the results of which I will try to inform the European office, with some Conclusions) also try to develop and restructure the information available on our website, trying to find new opportunities. Finally this long-term expected to do some promotional activities, it may related to international relations.

Following up of users: with this project we are trying to understand about the impact that the serve has on its users (and the ways we can improve the service), to this at the moment I develop a questionnaire, and we plan to do a sample of users, the idea is to do at least follow-up after this.

Illness interview: I have plans to conduct a research focused on helping to implement a formal meetings of heads of services with the office workers when tem return from a period of sick leave this is an internal project of the University beareth out with the Department of Human Resources (with whom I have had some previous contacts ahead of their formulation).

In conclusion I can highlight I like the development of my internship and I’m very happy with the environment (not only with the organization where I am) but also the country itself while driving because some information with respect to labour market I can analyze as there is grater mobility, and my analysis (although brief) is that thanks to this mobility allows for grater competitiveness and greater professional development. However, companies seem to believe more in the maintenance and education of its employees as a way of add competitive structure and the public sector seems to be endowed with a structure that makes it more efficient. This is not to say that British society is without problems, there is it, but in terms of values within the scope of work in which I move, I must say that I am very satisfied, which has beaten my mind and my future plans, so we’ll see…

To finish I can not say goodbay without invite you to the Creative Futures wich Career Service is runing the next week:

To finish I can not say goodbay without invite you to the Creative Futures fair wich Career Service is runing the next week:

And I can not say goodbye without advice you to have the same experience as me if you liked what you read, in ECTARC it is extended the application deadline for this phase to Monday January 30th and there is 37 places available , so I encourage you to take a lok to http://www.ectarc.com/european-training/working-abroad_117.html on the ECTARC website for information or you can reach the same page via the GO Wales website. The application form is available on the ‘Downloads – Applications’ page along with more information, including a clear table showing the elements paid for by the Leonardo and HEFCW funding. GO for it!

Who are we? where do we come from? Where do we go for lunch?

2012-01-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hello, Happy New Year! After being sick, study English hard to lose it in my Christmas holidays with my family and friends in my native Murcia here I am again!Most people have goals for the New Year, not get me wrong, I love the goals, I usually get a list of ground targets and usually archive before or after (to quit smoking or just be here writing this blog as part of my Leonardo grant are some goals that I have archived), but these objectives are part of a whole larger than ourselves, and as I do not like run going nowhere before dialing these goals seems important to answer to these three questions.

Because my education, which like most of my generation in my city and my country has Catholic roots in all the values and ways of thinking that we learn, we should answer god creatures, who come from and go to the eat where god wants. But if you say so, we would not be consistent with myself, because maybe by or perhaps in spite of my education I am agnostic and the truth is that despite having sought some information to those questions in science have not found an answer, which I assume that we are probably here by accident and therefore we have no target (or at least we know, few political disputes, religious or philosophical would calm if we overcome!). Given this uncertainty (how bad it feels to the humans) that we can do? Assume that we know who we are or where we come from, but we can decide where we go for lunch ...For that we need to know what we like, we must know ourselves and for that we can be helpful to draw a timeline (where indicate the important events that make us as we are and the future events we want to achieve), that will lead to a "table of commitments" must be with yourself (I do not mean that either we have to take into account the others, but not clear that if we forget ourselves comprimised). For all this self-confidence is essential (if you do not have in a particular field can help us remember times or areas of our lives where if we have, and try to do something similar in the area problem), we must assume personal responsibility (in the future we are who we are responsible ourselves). Here the work (which is my passion) has a great importance, because we spent a large part of our life in it, so it is important to ask ourselves what is our element (which would say Sir Ken Robinson) and try to control it, and if possible to live on. For this is good ask questions like What would you do if you do not have to make money?In definitive is that eventually your thoughts and your actions will accordingly (thus avoiding cognitive dissonance experience), no excuses need to be addressed (no need to raise a revolution, we can start small-to me, for example, I like to make lists of goals each year- I think one year is a good time to change habits or to learn skills and stable changes in the life of a person), in the way we will accept changes in the environment and errors (of which we learn). Finally there is something that I think is key in all this, and serve others, as Mahatma Gandhi said "the best way to find yourself is to put in service to others." I leave you with a video that I get excited this Christmas (Thanks to my collegaue Kate who showed it to me!)

It doesn't matter if you want or not, change it is here

2011-11-28T02:35:00.000-08:00

Change is something is searched sometime happends without our pleasure, change happends later one crisis or maybe crisis is to notice change it's goin to happend (that is maybe the resason because japanese people use the same word crisis and oportunity). Inteligence is the capacity of adaptation, that't it is how you adapt to the changes. Our brain it is ready to the change, but we use to use a believe who says there are permanent things (but it is a illusion, we live in a planet who moves around the universe a great speed, nobody knows if we will be alive tomorrow so how we can know our house it will be forever?), that is the way for example I learnt Economy or Social Psicology (Science I studied are based in the study of one variable related with another wich it suposed remains constant). That and the procastination do more difficult face the changes and we react in a reluctant way in front of the changes we don´t wait for (I am sure you can imagine a lot of examples, a couple breakdown, job loss, a decision of our parents that you dont wait for...), but the changes happend doesn´t matter if you want or not (there you have an example about carer prospects changes), so the best you can do is accept some change is happening and think what is the best we can do in this situation.

Because if change happend and you remind the same all your life at the end you would lose, because it is impossible to be adapted in the same way to one enviroment who change all the time is for this we have now concepts as lifelong learning program in the European Union and in our University or change management in the companies, to do more effective adaptability to change.

For me it was four weeks my life changed! an this week I found more than 20 part-time jobs for you! that you can find it in Newport Prospects, and I met Paul Andrews of Centre for Digitally Enhanced Learning to introduce Career team to their service, we talk about very interesting things like googlios (A very interesting e-portfolio). I met Gemma Gabriel (HR Manager) because we are planing colaborate and Mark Beynon and Sarah Davies of European office, where you can inform about Erasmus program, we are interested in offered maybe some scheme to european internships but we need to know if you are interested!

Now is your turn, you decide what kind of life you want to have in your future (because your future starts now!), so you know where you can find me and all Career Service team or any University Service who are here to serve you! Don't forguet you can be friend of our account in Facebook or follow us in Twitter (both account brilliantly managed by Sharon Holt, who I want to thank about her help with this blog!)

I would like to finish with a Bob Dyland Song, and some words about change and crisis it supouse are from Einstein, hoping inspiring you, because I know Uk is a great place, but there is things who it can improve!

Do not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same. The crisis is the greatest blessing that can happen to people and countries, because the crisis brings progress. Creativity is born of anxiety as the day comes from the dark night. It is in crisis born of invention, discovery and major strategies. He who overcomes crisis surpasses himself without being overcome.

Who attributed their failures to the crisis and hardship, neglects his own talent and respects more problems than solutions. The real crisis is the crisis of incompetence. The disadvantage of individuals and countries is laziness to find solutions to their problems. There is no crisis challenges, without challenges life is a routine, a slow death. There is no crisis without merit. It is in the crisis which show the very best of each, because without any wind caress crisis. Talk of crisis is to promote, and be silent in the crisis is to exalt conformism. Instead, work hard. Get it over with menacing crisis that is the tragedy of not being willing to overcome.

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Looking for Leaders. Ask here!

2011-11-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow there is elections in my country. In the last two weeks are being revolutionary for European Countries, it was a change of democratic leaders in Greec and Italy for technocratic administrator of the state. In Spain it goin to be a change of president, probably of party in power too, but Spaniards know that the true leadership for us is in Europe. In my opinion, Europe needs leaders ready to advance, for me it is great news Angela Merkel has started to talk about the need of Policy Union, but I am not sure if the current leaders will do this or not, or maybe the followers will do, but I am sure, as in past big crisis, -when that was hapened there was a development of the city's caused of the industralisation, this time something similar will happen in a global way, if we want; we can analyse in a local level, the most minimum it will be Europe!

We need leaders, therefore start to develop this proyject. "Real Prospects Directory" for 2011/12 defined leadership in this terms: "Leadership is about being able to motivate and direct yourself and your team by taking the initiative on projects persevering when things go wrong and taking a positive attitude to mistakes".

At this level, individually we should make an analysis about the situation, about our goals and act consequently. In our analysis we should realise this globalized world is more competitive, for this we need preparing more (now it is not the same to be graduate than in the past, now it is necessary to speak languages, to have a masters...) that means we need more effort but at the same time more opportunities are offering for us. For this now more than ever we need to have leadership.

About my international experience I can tell you it is not easy, but recompense. It is not easy becuse it is exhausting to be day by day (three weeks yet) dealing with a language that is not yours and you don't speak fluently, but it is worth it to go to Caerphilly with my colleague Salli (to do one to one careers interviews) and see the castle, worth it to find part-time jobs for the students of the University who you are trying to help, spend a day with Lawrence Wilson of Student Sevice and to assist at very interesting meetings, worth it to assist with the drop in days (Wednesday!) or meet Tilly (an career advisor diploma student who spent this week with us)

As last week I would like to encourage you to live this kind of experience, that enrich yourself, but this week I would encourage you to lead yourself and drive your own life!

To finish I leave a inspiring speech:

Welcome!

2011-11-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Blog! Let me introduce myself, my name is Antonio I am from Murcia (Spain) and two weeks ago I started an internship in the career and employability service of the University of Wales, Newport (I am here an part of Leonardo Da Vinci Internship Program). I am this strange guy who you can see when you pass in the library, who put a strange face when is talking or hearing you because is trying to understand.

Some of you may wonder why I am here, I am blogging because I hope my blog will encorage you to consider internships, both home and abroad! I considered because I think to be here is an opportunity for my future career development. I am here because there is a hard financial/economic/politic/social crisis (I am sure you hear something about this) which in Spain have as very high unemployment result (1 of each 3 unemployment of Europe is from Spain), being so hard to get an job specially for young people and graduate. But particularly I am here because I want to take on enjoy take on opportinities, to learn and develop myself having new experiences, so part of my job is to promote this kind of experience you, and help to do possible this.

I can tell you, after two weeks I`m not sorry of this decision, because I am part of a great team career service which in turn is part of the CELT (Centre for Excelence in Learning and Teaching), composed of a group of friendly people providing services to the university gaduates and university community who have made me feel part of their group allowing me to learn about they and develop myself in this enviroment. In this two weeks I can see how this service work, I attended work meetings, money week and one to one appointments with my colleagues and I learned about part-time jobs seeking and prospects website. I also spent one day with David Hodgins in Go Wales (where you can apply for placements to improve your employability!).

I would like to take this occasion to tanks all they but specially Lloyd Williams (who did this possible).

I hope this blog could serve to be a meeting point to discuss about issues future careers, travel, experience, skills, employment, etc. Please let me know how can I help you!

I would like finish showing you this song "Una cancion me trajo hasta aqui" of Jorge Drexler ( I put the lyric in english to help understanding!)

Several summers ago
The wind changed
And a song brought me here.

It was only a subtle sign
Which then grew
And a song brought me here.

Before, earlier in that other world distant
Times a different story.
Far away to look at other mirrors
Without realizing it take to walk one day.

With a childlike enthusiasm
That lasts until today,
A song brought me here.

I was leaving behind lines
Line to line,
A song brought me here.

Before, earlier in that other world distant
Times a different story.
Far away to look at other mirrors
Without realizing it take to walk one day.