ConstructFEST – EU-CONEXUS Forum and Cultural Festival
Between 4-8 of April, UTCB together with EU-CONEXUS and other partners organized ConstructFEST, the biggest construction career fair in Romania that included EU-CONEXUS Forum and Cultural Festival! At its 5th edition this year, this fair aimed to better connect the industry and EU-CONEXUS academic offers to students from EU-CONEXUS universities and high school students from Romania, to increase their professional opportunities and skills and involve them, together with EU-CONEXUS staff, in promoting the EU-CONEXUS community and Romanian culture.
More than 40 Romanian companies, associations and NGOs were present and interacted with the participants. This was a great opportunity for networking and for making plans for student careers. This premiere gathered more than 150 EU-CONEXUS staff, students and Governing Board members who participated in the activities. Distinguished guests from our alliance and from the Romanian local and central stakeholders were also present during the opening of the event and in the EU-CONEXUS Stakeholder roundtable. We were honored to have representatives from:
- The EU-CONEXUS Governing Board
- The Ministry of Education
- The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration
- City Hall of District 2 Bucharest
- Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration
- State Councilor of the Prime Minister
- Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation
- French Embassy and French Institute in Romania
- Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF)
- Employers’ Federation of Building Companies
The roundtable and the series of EU-CONEXUS working groups meetings held gave our guests the opportunity to talk about ways in which our Alliance can grow stronger moving forward, and about the crucial importance of cross – cultural collaboration between our institutions. Also, this was a unique occasion for our guests to exchange ideas on future endeavours.
EU-CONEXUS Forum was a unique opportunity for the students from EU-CONEXUS:
- to interact with more than 30 companies;
- to receive details about EU-CONEXUS Career Center on JobTeaser – platform for our students and alumni that enables them to be in direct contact with companies;
- to participate on 3 workshops about how to better present themselves at future interviews and how to boost their CVs;
- to create their own career plan;
to receive information about EU-CONEXUS study programs (Minor Programmes and Joint Master Programme in Marine Biotechnology) and also about each university member in EU-CONEXUS (offline and online on a specialized platform)
During the event, UCTB hosted also the Final Pitch for the students from the EU-CONEXUS Social Entrepreneurship Programme, were they presented their social start-up ideas that bring solutions to challenges of the coastal areas and we selected 6 winners that will go in international mobilities to one of their mentor, an entrepreneur from EU-CONEXUS mentorship platform. Also, the participants were invited to a workshop on nonviolent communication with their social entrepreneur and trainer and also to a project Market session with Bucharest District 2 Vice Mayor – they brought solutions to Bucharest environmental problems . Also, they were given a tour of EFdeN – Sustainable City.
Another premiere for UTCB was the first blended-mobility from the EU-CONEXUS Minor programmes in Bucharest, where students from Effects of Climate Change course had academic activities and the opportunity to visit the Romanian National Meteorological Administration.Also, EU-CONEXUS students took part in a workshops on environmental challenges powered by ClimatoSfera, and on leadership &public speaking powered by ESN ASE-CMP Bucharest.
The EU-CONEXUS Cultural Festival included Romanian Cultural Eveningwith Romanian music, theater and traditional dances. Besides the artistic moments prepared by UTCB students, UTCB received a significant support in the organization from The Artists’ Nest and the Students’ Cultural House in Bucharest. Other cultural activities were the social evening with traditional stands presented by UTCB Buddies in collaboration with ESN volunteers from ESN ASE-CMP Bucharest, for the EU-CONEXUS participants, Bucharest Questo Tour, a visit to the Romanian Palace of the Parliament and to the Natural Sciences Museum of Bucharest.
EU-CONEXUS staff had the first Governing Board, Management and Financial and Administrative Council meetings in Bucharest, also the Minor Officers and Costal Engineering Institute had the opportunity to meet physically. A part of the guests participated to UTCB Research Lab Visit where the research projects and results of UTCB were presented to our partners and another important activity for the creation of a strong EU-CONEXUS community was the implementation of 3 Job Shadowing mobilities for administrative staff of 2 EU-CONEXUS universities, that had the opportunity to see how UTCB is running the operational day-to-day activities.
EU-CONEXUS Student Board had the first joint meeting with Erasmus Student Representatives, ESN being an international partner of EU-CONEXUS and they exchanged best practices about student involvement and discussed more about how they can interact more and implement activities for students across EU-CONEXUS areas. In the same time, UTCB students and buddies involved EU-CONEXUS guests in sport and social activities during the week in the city Center of Bucharest.
Another premiere was the inauguration the EU-CONEXUS UTCB rooms – the training room, the conference room and also the ESN Student Hub, as the majority of the activities were held here.
We would like to thank everybody involved in the realization of these events. We owe its success to the concerted effort and work of all the parties.
