Kampala, Uganda: Victoria University has launched its Career Readiness and Employability programme today, the first of its kind on the African Continent.
Alongside this Programme, the University has unveiled its 2023 Career Ambassador and launched a new education turn-around model, the VU Block Model, meant to change higher education teaching on the continent; and an overseas placement programme for university graduates.
Victoria University is a distinctive player focusing on new opportunities to serve the society.
According to the University management, the institution’s role is to be part of the solution by transforming higher education systems to meet the emerging challenges of the times and the future by going beyond conventional approaches.
“Through our Career Readiness and Employability Programme, we nurture our students to enter the workforce with knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to a particular career path. It includes a range of factors such as education, work experience, and vocational training.
The Career Readiness and Employability programme is an avenue that reinforces authenticity for our students, influencing them to be globally relevant and impactful, not only academically, but also in their contribution to their society’s well-being. Through this Programme, the University continues to reveal its unwavering commitment to being recognized as one of the top innovation universities in the country and the world,” the management said in a statement.
With their aspiration “To be the World Class University in Transformational Education,” the University continues to embrace free inquiry and expression.
“Our motivation is to give our learners what they want — relevant complex experiences that prepare them for the challenging future. Our authentic learning education model focuses on experiential and work-integrated learning, where our students can learn by doing real-job placements that last throughout one’s study period.”
Students access relevant internships in their areas of specialization, study tours, exchange programmes for experience and exposure, creativity, and expert mentorship for those with life-changing ideas to be turned into innovation and start-ups, even to generate more jobs.
The students open themselves to seeking feedback from mentors and supervisors, helping them identify areas for improvement and develop a plan for enhancing their skills.
“Our Career Readiness and Employability coaches will support our students in finding suitable careers by focusing on their strengths and what’s important to them. This CR&E Programme will help us produce outstanding employment-ready graduates,” the management asserted.
” Through this CR&E programme, we continue to attract partners worldwide, leaning into our internationalization pillar that supports our quest to build a distinctive future. This Programme opens our students and graduates to more significant opportunities for global advancement and a broader labour market. This plan explains why we have launched our Overseas Programme for graduates and students of Nursing and Midwifery, Information Technology, and Tourism and Hospitality.”
The University’s graduates have already secured companies abroad willing to employ them as soon as they graduate. Some will travel in and out of the country during the summer for work under the institution’s IT and Tourism and Hospitality Programme for Graduates and students in Germany, thanks to Arbeitsvermittlung Westfalen-Lippe company in Germany. In the United Kingdom, they have partnered with CWG Recruit to support their graduate nurses and midwives to secure employment placements.
As part of the CR&E Programme, the University also launched its 2023 Career Ambassador, Sheebah Karungi.
“Sheebah is the true epitome of perseverance and hard work. Her success story is a testament to every young person’s potential, and we are proud to have her as our 2023 Career Ambassador. She dreamt big to excel amidst several storms in her life; we teach, believe, and support all our students to dream big, and she will be a living example for them. Sheebah was born and raised by a single mother in Kawempe, a Division, and suburb of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Despite dropping out of school in Senior Two, she started dancing for money at 15 and developed a successful solo career in music,”the management said.
They added that they support all students who think or are ready to think and dream big, just as Sheebah did and they are to nurture people’s dreams and innovations through the training they receive.
“As our 2023 Career Ambassador, Sheebah will exceptionally be our voice in explaining the value of this Programme to students, employers, parents, and graduates. She epitomizes what we believe in. Through this CR&E programme, we aim to raise an army of career-ready graduates who are globally relevant and impactful academically and in their contribution to society’s well-being. Through the Career Readiness and Employability Program, we will inspire millions of other young people worldwide to unlock their full potential and achieve excellence.”
“For this Programme of Career Readiness and Employability to succeed, we must change the way we teach students in this country and on this continent. This is when we must crash the outdated teaching methods that do not deliver quality education and switch to a new way of teaching and segmenting what we teach. Someone had to do something about this country’s higher education, and we have decided to take a new path, and we are very intentional about this. Here is our unique approach.”
It is also important to note that the institutions have been teaching the same way for hundreds of years now, but the world around has changed, and along with it, employer and industry needs have hugely changed and will not stop changing. So, the management changed how students learn at VU with Africa’s First VU Block Model.
The University management noted:
Two years ago, we started the Work Integrated Learning Programme. Students must are placed in a natural working environment as part of the curriculum for every Programme we host at this University. Upon admission at Victoria University, we start with the Career Readiness and Employability Programme, and students later join the Work Integrated Learning stage, where students are sent to various companies, schools, and industries when we know they can fit in the real world of work, even before graduation, with no hassle. In certain instances, they are even far better than the graduates.
But, to do this, we need to ensure that our lectures are flexible, spaced, and can be attended from anywhere (explaining why we have the VClass, an online learning platform). This VU Block Model will create time and an avenue for WIL and CR&E to work perfectly. To do this, we have started the first-ever VU Block Model System of Teaching at the University. This VU Model works so that a student pursues one Module per month, instead of six modules at a go, in one semester.
Traditionally, any university juggles the demands and deadlines of six modules (course units) simultaneously. Instead, the VU Block Model allows students to focus on one Module at a time. A student’s academic year is divided into three Semesters, and we call them Trimesters. Each Trimester is divided into four blocks, which will run for four months, and each Block runs for Four Weeks. You focus on one Module in each Block, completing all your assessments before moving on to the next Module.
Students have greater focus, learn one thing at a time, and have no interruptions. Students study in smaller, more collaborative lectures and attend class two per week. So, our students will still focus on other essential life activities.
The Block Model offers students flexible study options, one teacher per Module support, and practical hands-on teaching that prepares them for their unpredictable future. With the introduction of the VU Block Model, students’ success is soaring, with a pass rate of over 97% for undergraduate students and more than 70% receiving grades at distinction level or above.
Victoria University is leading an Education Revolution, and we are restoring the Higher Education Promise with the New Way to do University (#theVUWay).
At Victoria University, we know that it takes a village to raise a child, and we cannot do it alone. We call upon all employers, CEOs, innovators, philanthropists, and other stakeholders to join hands with us as co-educators in transforming education and giving the labor market only job-ready graduates.
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