Job shadowing between International and External Affairs Departments of La Rochelle Université and Technical University of Civil Engineering
Between 9th-12th of May, a Job Shadowing Mobility took place between international and external affairs departments of La Rochelle Université and Technical University of Civil Engineering. Jeanette Mehra, International Relations Assistant at La Rochelle University came in Job Shadowing to Ramona Diac, institutional EU-CONEXUS Mobility Coordinator at UTCB.
EU-CONEXUS encourages its staff members from all departments to participate in individual job shadowing mobilities at one of the partner institutions. The aim of this type of mobility is to enhance the network among administrative staff and to share best practices among EU-CONEXUS partners, by developing a deeper understanding of each other’s administrative cultures.
The two Mobility Officers had the chance to spend time together and to share working experiences for three days in UTCB, having different Job Shadowing activities such as:
- exchanging good practices and common challenges between the International Offices – meetings with the colleagues from the UTCB International Relations Office
- presenting the structure and the mechanisms of EU-CONEXUS Office in UTCB
- witnessing the organization of the UTCB Blended Minor Course Pollution/ Depollution
- brainstorming on ways to increase the number of mobilities within the alliance, especially the number of Job Shadowing mobilities.
From the discussions held and after analyzing the common challenges and the feedback received from the first phase of EU-CONEXUS project, several solutions that can be implemented to reach a better number of Job Shadowing mobilities have emerged:
- Establishing contacts among the Mobility Offices in the alliance – the first Jobs Shadowing should be held between the local responsible with this type of mobilities within each university. It will open direct channels of communication, it will increase the understanding of the differences in organizing and responding to these demands, and it will facilitate the creation of staff networking in the alliance.
- Promoting the goal and the results of the mobility – Creating awareness about the benefits of job shadowing among the staff in all the partner’s universities through different channels (articles, newsletters, social media posts).
- Customizing experiences – Tailoring job shadowing experiences to match not only the professional but also the personal motivation of the applicants, besides sharing the working experiences, be open also to organize cultural and social interactions.
- Providing personalized support and guidance – Offering support to participants throughout the job shadowing process not only regarding the mobility procedures but also in identifying the proper host university related to the goals of the mobility.
- Being flexible – Keeping the Mobility Call for Job Shadowing open during the entire academic year, many people from the administrative staff, especially from the Mobility offices are difficult to be replaced and it is also challenging for them to synchronize with other universities to organize collective Job Shadowing.
Until the end of the second phase of the EU-CONEXUS project, our target is to organize at least 100 Job Shadowing mobilities between the partner universities. We encourage the administrative staff to contact the local Mobility offices to apply for these opportunities.
