Work Experience Brochure

www.transylvania-college.ro

Should you like to get involved in the Work Experience programme, please contact

Rada Mocean, Development Officer Alumni Society & Work Experience Coordinator

Aleea Băișoara, nr.2A, 400445, Cluj-Napoca, România (004) 0747 221 123 rada.mocean@transylvania-college.ro

While our senior students are organising their prom, saying their goodbyes and embarking on their bright

WORK EXPERIENCE

futures, the rest of the high school students spend the last school weeks rolling up their sleeves undergoing work experience.

We facilitate relevant, unpaid work experience in public and private organisations or alongside freelancing professionals for our high-school students so they can get a glimpse of what their potential careers would look like.

Work experience and community service carried out throughout school are complementary and weigh heavily in the admission portfolios for the top universities in the world. However, the programme’s crucial role is in helping students find their spark and make informed decisions about their professional path so they can walk on it with confidence and joy.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Employers are much more likely to hire someone with work experience so internships are key to building your resume as a student or recent graduate.

Test drive possible jobs and explore different career options while navigating through real life situations Get professional networking opportunities to acquire references, find mentors and unique job opportunities

Mihai HĂŽnda (Transylvania College Alumnus, Class of 2017) started working at Impuls Radio while still in high-school, after finishing his internship there.

After the winter break, we send out an online survey asking students what professional fields or specific organisations they would be interested in working in.

Their options range widely from arts to finance, medicine, hospitality management, military aviation, IT, engineering and so forth.

We match their interests with the organisations who have partnered with us throughout the years and we work on finding new partners in as many fields as possible. Meanwhile, we also encourage students to be

AUG 17

proactive and secure their own internships locally or abroad and even explore their family business.

In June, students work at least 10 days per year, on

HOW DOES IT WORK?

an average of 4 hours per day, as mutually agreed with their mentors, either observing or practicing specific professional skills, depending on the complexity of the chosen field.

Some of the goals that students strive to achieve during their placement are: understanding the industry and its specific norms and regulations understanding the organisational culture, standards and values acquiring specific soft and technical skills analysing the pros and cons of the profession The host organisations also benefit from this programme by: AUG 17

getting fresh ideas and real-time feedback from the students as millennial customers getting new energy and improved morale among their employees understanding the way their future employees think and what their needs and skill base are grooming their future employees, customers and partners helping education providers develop their curriculum to match the labour market demand

In 2017, the Work Experience programme reached its 6th anniversary as:

85 students worked with 37 of our school’s partners for two weeks

10 students did summer internships and are grateful to companies like Fortech, Garmin, Arhimar, Vitrina Advertising, Bog’Art and many others for hosting them

NUMBERS AND HIGHLIGHTS

3 students got an international work experience in England (aviation), China (fashion design) and France (business)

2 foreign exchange students, Lucy from Australia and Kannan from India, have gotten more familiar with Romanian culture as they learned about interior design and photography

“I continued to work at my last year's placement in the human resources, quality management and complaints departments. I think I now know more about teamwork, time management, decision making and planning. I would like to volunteer in another internship at Schlemmer, as I might actually work in this field. I enjoyed the opportunity to observe how employees work closely together in order to achieve the company's objectives and to have met great people throughout the internship.”

Simina Savinescu, Year 11 / Schlemmer (HR)

“I figured I would like to be an architect. The best part of this internship was being able to work on a project that is actually going to be implemented. I didn't expect it to be so interesting and I also didn't think that the mentors were going to get involved as much as they did, considering that I also had some really bad experiences in the previous years. At Project A, they are passionate and always willing to help even though they have a lot of work to do. Furthermore, I was offered to work at this company for the rest of the summer.”

Cristina Nistor, Year 12 / Project A (Architecture)

“I loved how everyone at NTT Data was so open and friendly, treating us as adults and having mature conversations. I never expected to have so much fun during the whole experience, but everybody there was amazing. They all had a very professional attitude and were extremely well organized. We had an induction week, where we got professional training through several workshops meant to enhance our soft-skills and each department was presented to us in detail, so we got to understand the entire business.

During the second week, we worked with programmers on SQL, Python, C-basics allowing us to learn lot of new things from the IT side of the business. I was impressed with the NTT Data Academy and the pre-graduate opportunities, which lead to full time employment. Overall, this was an outstanding experience!“ Daniel Bega, Year 10 / NTT Data (Business Management & IT)

Good practice: Our students built an app during their internship at Fortech Jimmy Qian, Tudor Lungu, Sam Khandavalli, Matthias Danowsky from Year 13 and Georgiana Moiș from Year 11 developed their first full programming project: Foodster – an application that offers delicious recipes based on ingredients you already have. Their website also includes an interactive map of supermarkets where you can buy your missing ingredients, an allergenic and dietary restricitions filter and a brief history of the dishes based on their countries of origin. In the process, they worked as front and back-end developers, they wrote code in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and AngularsJs, and they produced the graphic design and the business plan.

The team named Tesseract was led by Cristian Baciu, Unit Manager at Fortech, a very capable mentor and that he told them everything they needed to know. He was constantly available, even considering that he had a lot of work to do and travelled quite a bit. He prepared everything ahead and was very organised."

The five students assumed specific roles in the implementation process, from the product's concept stage to marketing in. Their biggest challenges were working as a team and prioritizing their responsibilities, since all of them were involved in various internships or work experience programs in Germany, the US and South Africa.

Therefore, not only did they learn the technical part of the project, but the entire management and interpersonal aspects involved.

It was a seven months’ project developed through the mentoring and practical education programme DPIT (Discover your Passion for IT), together with 115 other students from Cluj-Napoca, in 23 teams, distributed amongst several IT companies in town, such as NTT Data Romania, Arobs Transilvania, NetMatch and others.

In the end, Tesseract were glad to see the final product – their very own website. The application helped them decide on their future careers.

Jimmy, Tudor and Sam want to study Computer Science at a university in the Netherlands. They concluded that programs such as the Work Experience help them understand the labour market and confirm their professional development choices.

For the mentors, being involved in such a project clearly means a much busier schedule, but they say it is worth it. Fortech constantly supports work experience projects in Cluj-Napoca and the company has been a main partner since the first edition of DPIT in 2015. The purpose of the project is supporting youth in their most important formative stage – high school – by easing their decision-making process when it comes to their careers.

This is just one of the ten internships students were involved in this year. We want to encourage companies to see the value their mentoring brings and involve more of them as educational partners.

Proud of you!

Partners:

Do you feel that your work during the internship made a difference and that your input was valuable?

IMPACT AND RESULTS We would also like to share some of the results of the student survey below:

34.5% 48.3%

Not at all To a certain degree

17.2%

Very Much

Did the internship help you get a proper understanding of the company’s organisational culture and how that particular business works?

62.1%

Did this internship help you make a decision regarding your career path?

Not at all

HELP US SHIFT THIS BALANCE !

To a certain degree 37.9%

Very Much

I realised I would like to work in this field

48.3% 6.9%

44.8%

I realised I would like to explore even more options before I decide This intership has not made any difference whatsoever in my career choices

If offered the chance, would you like to actually be employed at this company?

48.3% 20.7%

Yes No

31%

I would like to volunteer or participate again in another internship there

PARTNERS AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL FIELDS We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the independent professionals and companies that dedicated their time, resources and expertise 48.3% towards mentoring our students in the 2016-2017 school year. A part of them have been receiving our students in internships for several years now. We 44.8% are proud to know that their guiding roles have prepared our young and bright for the future:

• Accent Impex – Business

• Douanutri – Photo & Video

management

• Facultatea de Medicina Veterinara

• Ana-Maria Huluban, Transylvania

Cluj-Napoca – Veterinary Medicine

College Media Studies Teacher –

• Fortech – IT, Programming

• Primera Interiors – Interior Design, Business Management

Photo & Video

• Garmin - IT

• Project A - Architecture

• Arhimar - Architecture

• Harosa & Asociatii – Societate

• Radio Impuls - Music / Journalism

• Avocat Razvan Balosu - Law

• Profesionala De Avocati - Law

• Banca Transilvania - Finance,

• Hotel Phoenix, Arad – Hospitality

• Samsara Foodhouse – Restaurant Management

Banking

Management

• Baza 71 Aeriană "General Emanoil

• I&C Transilvania Constructii -

• Satu Mare International Airport – Civil Aviation

Ionescu" – Military Aviation

Business Management

• Schlemmer – Quality Management

• Bienala de Arhitectura Transilvania

• I&C Transilvania Constructii - Business Management

• TD Studio – Brand Design

– Photo & video • Bog’Art – Civil Engineering • Clinica Medispa – Plastic Surgery

• Institutul Inimii "Nicolae Stancioiu" Cardio-Vascular Surgery

• Cristina Ungvari, Transylvania

• Institutul Regional De Gastroenterologie-Hepatologie "Prof.

Dr. Octavian Fodor" Cluj-Napoca Gastroenterology

College – Psychology, Education

• Laura Lazea – Fashion Design

• Daisler Print House – Graphic

• Marty Restaurants – Business Management

• Co-Packing - 360 Digital Printing Logistics

Design • Deloitte - Financial Audit • Design by Oana Lupas – Fashion Design • Dimeco - Mechanical Engineering

• MUZA Events – Event Planning, Fashion, Graphic Design • NTT Data Romania – IT, Programming / Business Management • Prefera Foods - Business Management

• Prefera Foods - Business Management

• Terapia Ranbaxy | A SunPharma Company – Chemical Research • Vanilla Events – Event Planning • Vitrina Advertising – PR, Media, Communication, Online