ESA Student Conference 2015 in Durham
From 21 to 25 March New College Durham welcomed thirty ESA students from different countries to their international student conference in the lovely small city Durham in northeast England. Two students in ESA 13 were offered to take part in it. So we, Madlen Reiss and Philipp Epha, took this opportunity.
The concept of a student conference was described beforehand as to allow the delegates to broaden their knowledge and experience new things, as well as provide the opportunity to meet and work with new people. The topic of this year’s conference was “employability”: Learning and improving the skills, abilities and attributes that make you employable.
We really enjoyed the programme of the student conference. Besides following a very business-related agenda, the first days provided up with the opportunity to get to know the participants and the region. On Sunday we visited the historic city of York and the traditional coastal town of Whitby. We also visited the city of Durham with its beautiful Cathedral and Castle, which is rightfully considered to be “one of the finest architectural experiences of Europe”. In the evenings we enjoyed the facilities of our great accommodation and networked with our fellow delegates.
From Monday to Wednesday, the conference activities included different, very interesting speeches by entrepreneurs well-known in their fields. The most exiting speech was probably made by a “Broadcaster of the Year” and “Journalist of the Year” and will stick in our minds forever. Other, more business-related topics were, for example, “Recognising and developing employability skills”, “Communication in Action”, ”Enterprise and Entrepreneurship” or “Exploring Employability”. All of them helped us to define and improve our skills, qualities and values. Especially the presentation on “Interview Strategies and Reflecting on your work experiences” prepared us well for our working life.
To make the best use of the opportunities offered by this event we were asked to open our eyes and our minds and to interact as intensively as possible. One of the main messages of the conference was: “You only get out what you are prepared to put in”. If you have a positive attitude towards challenges and if you take the opportunities given or even create some new ones, you will reach your aims in life.
So we took this opportunity to get to know many other students of different ages, from different places but in the same position in life as us. We met many new friends and learned a lot about ourselves and used the time to reflect our activities and consider the processes we have been going through.
During that conference we learned a lot about employability, the certain skills we have already gained and how to develop further skills. The contents of the conference, and the experience as such, improved our range of skills and reinforced our ability to work in a multinational environment. We are very glad and grateful to have had the chance to attend this conference and recommend that every interested student use such an opportunity.
Madlen and Philipp, ESA 13, Euro Akademie Hamburg
