As a preliminary to the shortly starting ACCESS conference and summer school in Abuja, we have asked some attendees – among them ACCESS team members and PhDs – about their thoughts and expectations about the upcoming event. Here are the answers of the third three interviewees:
Bismark Agyei Yeboah,
ACCESS Project coordinator, Germany
1.) In which role/position do you attend the Conference/Summer School in Nigeria and what do you deliver? I am attending the conference as the Project Coordinator of ACCESS. I will be moderating the AGEA Business Idea Competition final and the World Cafe sessions on UBL and Student Assessment. 2.) What are your expectations of this Conference/Summer School in regard of exchange and mutual development of the ACCESS project? I am expecting the active participation of all participants and fruitful interactions and networking on the topic of Employability in Africa. I also expect that the World Cafe session will yield concrete ideas on the challenges of UBL and innovative ideas on how student self-assessment can be done in the African context. 3.) What means the ACCESS project to you and what do you think, makes it so special as a project? Employment and employability issues are critical on the African continent. Having a project such as ACCESS within an international collaboration and interdisciplinary interests to address the issue of employability under its four pillars offers exciting insights to key actors or stakeholders. ACCESS is special because it addresses an important topic which is relevant today and will be relevant in the future, at least for Africa. 4.) What are you most looking forward to at the upcoming Conference/Summer School? I am excited about the keynote address and workshop series. |
Doris Alago,
ACCESS PhD candidate
1.) In which role/position do you attend the Conference/Summer School in Nigeria and what do you deliver? I attend the conference/summer school as ACCESS PhD student. I present a paper titled “Career service innovation for employability capacity building of students.” 2.) What are your expectations of this Conference/Summer School in regard of exchange and mutual development of the ACCESS project? To get insights from other participants, maybe a possibility to network with like-minded participants. 3.) What means the ACCESS project to you and what do you think, makes it so special as a project? I see ACCESS as an interdisciplinary project. Through the multiple times we have had colloquims as a PhD group, I have been able to learn about the many dimensions of employability research in Africa. The similarities and differences that come with it. What makes it so unique for me is being able to be exposed to so many ways of approaching and doing research, which would otherwise have not been possible. 4.) What are you most looking forward to at the upcoming Conference/Summer School? I am looking forward to insights from the experts participating, networking with like-minded participants for future possibilities and also experiencing Abuja. |
Sandy Adam,
ACCESS Coordinator (Capacity Building pillar), Germany
1.) In which role/position do you attend the Conference/Summer School in Nigeria and what do you deliver? I work as a coordinator in the Leipzig University team and I am responsible for developing our Capacity Building pillar of the ACCESS project. I will have a presentation on designing an international sports development graduate course online during the conference, which will hopefully give some insights into curriculum design for the conference partcipants. I will also conduct a workshop concerning the use of e-coaching tools to facilitate teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The train-the-trainer workshop will be the final output of our e-coaching activity within the Capacity Building pillar. 2.) What are your expectations of this Conference/Summer School in regard of exchange and mutual development of the ACCESS project? I hope to get in contact with our African partners from the ACCESS project. I am also interested in understanding the current challenges our partners face in educating students in such a way that they hopefully can find meaningful employment soon after graduation. 3.) What means the ACCESS project to you and what do you think, makes it so special as a project? Working in the ACCESS project means having an opportunity to develop knowledge and experience especially about the higher education context in our partner universities in Africa. It’s a great but equally challenging project, since we need to mainly work from distance and sometimes different ideas need to be balanced to be successful. 4.) What are you most looking forward to at the upcoming Conference/Summer School? I really look forward to getting to know Nigeria, since I have not been there yet. And it’s good to meet the ACCESS colleagues again. |
Stay tuned – there are more to come shortly…