The Career Accelerator Lab was born with the clear intention to help students of the master’s Programs to acquire key skills for the labor market, making the connection between students and companies, enhancing the contact between the academic and professional world, and contributing to the growth and employability of students throughout life.
Throughout the academic year, numerous companies come to the Campus of CATÓLICA-LISBON or invite our students to visit their offices, in a list of activities that aim to meet and recruit students. These are great opportunities for master's students to strengthen their brand and develop their network of contacts.
Within the wide range of activities that the Careers & Talent Office (CTO) develops, such as simulation of real work cases; simulation of recruitment processes; organization of various career-related events and fairs, CTO also develops a project of international visits called Study Trips, designed especially for students to visit various companies in various parts of Europe, thus developing relationships with various sectors and people in the labor world.
Study Trips: what is this project anyway?
Study Trips were born about a decade ago, initially developed with visits to London, in companies in the financial and consulting sectors, and currently in cities such as Dublin, Madrid, Amsterdam or Luxembourg. Study Trips were created because we believe that visiting a company is one of the best ways to really have a direct contact with the work experience.
The students start the year 2023 in a big way, with their Study Trips taking place during the week of January 16 in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin and Madrid, where they visited German unicorns like N26, Solarisbank and Wefox, and big companies like Tesla and Kraft Heinz (Amsterdam) or Tik Tok (Dublin) and Citi (Madrid).
We believe that these trips are one of the most positive ways for students to create a relationship with the business world and the labor market, thus getting to know the dynamics of these companies; learning better how their industry works; understanding how the environment within that organization is lived and, of course, getting to know the people and their challenges very closely.
"This fulfills our mission of bringing students closer to the labor market, either when they already know what they want to do and, therefore, want to test the market in that area or, on the contrary, they still don't know exactly what path they want and, therefore, we help them explore it," states Maria João Santos, responsible for the CTO.
Internationalizing CATÓLICA-LISBON: a step towards making the labor market more extensive
Being one of the great strengths and mission of CATÓLICA-LISBON internationalize the college, promoting an environment and community of excellence for all its students, the career activities have necessarily to go far beyond Portugal, marking presence in more and more countries and markets.
By internationalizing the school, this kind of visit no longer happens only in Portugal but also in several other countries and, in this case, students get in touch not only with the company culture itself, but also with how to work and live in same country.
The trip, within the scope of Study Trips, usually includes a visit to a Human Resources company, such as Michael Page, which gives students an overview of the local market, and a dinner is also organized with Alumni who are working in that country or city and who share their experience with current students.
The choice of locations for Study Trips is based on the countries where there are more recruitment opportunities for our students since career is the main goal of the project.
How do students receive these kinds of initiatives?
To participate in these Study Trips, students must apply, explaining why participating in this event is important to them and how this experience fits in with their goals. Then, students are selected based on their motivation and experience.
"These are very popular projects where our students get to combine learning and the social part. They are impactful experiences at all levels and they are not forgotten," says Maria João Santos, responsible for the CTO.
During this school year, there will be several activities that the CTO will organize. Stay tuned!
Companies visited in the Study Trips: MOOT, Solarisbank, Banxware, Pliant, N26, MedKitDoc, Forto, Wefox, Razor Grou, Blackrock, BNP Paribas, Accuracy, Oliver Wyman, Citi, JB Capital Markets, Hays, Accenture, Google, Mongo DB, Tik Tok, Oracle, IBM, Michael Page, Kraft Heinz, Getir, ING, Uber, Tesla, Philips, EVBox.