The ILUNI TALKS: Diaspora Edition seminar was held virtually on Sunday, February 20, 2022 at 19.00 WIB or 13.00 CET. This first seminar raised the theme of Scholarship Opportunities and Job Opportunities in Europe. This virtual event was attended by 90 participants and moderated by Siti Hartinah (96 Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Alumni) who is currently in Hungary.
The ILUNI TALKS: DIASPORA EDITION activity was held in order to reach more alumni abroad and to consolidate alumni in the ILUNI FTUI Chapter Europe. This event is expected to strengthen communication between alumni in Europe in a larger and organized forum. In this edition, featured speakers from three FTUI diaspora in Europe, namely: Rahadian Dewantoro (Electrical Engineering Alumni 97) who is currently in Germany, Elmo Kurnia (Electrical Engineering Alumni 97) who is currently in England and Bowie Brotosumpeno (Electrical Engineering Alumni). Electro 97) which is currently in France.
Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU., Dean of FTUI, conveyed his greetings of being healthy, fit and productive to the participants of the Webinar. “This is my first time greeting ILUNI FT colleagues who are holding a diaspora seminar. This is a very interesting theme, job opportunities and scholarships in Europe. FT alumni gain technical competence, network, and improve other soft skills on campus. So that post-campus activities can continue at the next level, work or study abroad.”
Dean Heri also said that currently, there are many scholarship opportunities from the government such as LPDP. “This is different from the situation 20 years ago, when I was in college. Previously, the scholarship depended on the country of origin of the scholarship. If the scholarship is from the Japanese government, the study is in Japan, etc. Now it’s better because students can choose. Studying and working abroad is also not easy. It’s not as easy as it looks and it’s more difficult than those who go back to college and work in the country,” said Dean Heri regarding his experience.
Head of the FTUI Alumni Association, Nanang Sugianto said, “This event aims to provide information for young alumni and students as well as to improve the European diaspora alumni association so that they can contribute to the alma mater. ILUNI FTUI plans to make formal diaspora association in three countries in one year. So that in the future there will be nine diaspora around the world. After this we will try to make it for Korea and Australia. Hopefully this event will be useful for all of us.”
In this webinar, the three speakers shared their career paths. In addition, tips related to the world of work, personal life, advantages and challenges of working and studying in Europe are also presented. The speakers said that engineering graduates were still in great demand. However, for citizens from outside the EU, not all work areas can be entered. One of the open fields is Information Technology. In France, the most open recruitment companies are consulting and software development companies.
In addition, the speakers also said that in terms of technical ability, FTUI graduates are not inferior to graduates from foreign universities. However, the lack of FTUI graduates is language skills other than English. So it is necessary to master the language of the country to be addressed. Mastery of the local language as a working language is absolute for non-English-speaking countries.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia