Paul Hacking travelling storyteller

A Travel Blog of Portugal

November 29th, 2016
Lisbon re-visited It’s late September 2016 and I’m sitting in a restaurant in a side street off the Rua do Ouro, near Rossio Square in central Lisbon. Gill and I are eating our favourite Portuguese starter cod croquette. On the next table are a couple from Finland and next to them are two visitors from Germany. Lisbon has become, in terms of visitors, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe and our little group of people reflected this. Sixteen years earlier I had visited Lisbon to see my sister Cheryl and brother in law Mick who were living and working in Cascais, a coastal town, about twenty miles from Lisbon. I could remember the year because my youngest daughter Jo came with me and we celebrated her sixteenth birthday. At the time I thought Lisbon was interesting, with its buildings displaying attractive exterior wall tiles, but nothing special. Later I was to discover how wrong I was. read more

A travel log of Georgia – near the Black Sea

February 6th, 2016
Do you serve milk? This is the start of a two year working adventure with Georgia, exploring the food, culture, customs, places and people. It is February 2013 and I have just arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. No, not the state in the USA but the country that gained independence from Russia in 1991. It borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and the waters of the Black Sea. To be honest, I had to look it up on the map to find out where it was when I was hired as an ‘EU expert’ to work with universities across Georgia. I have travelled from the UK via Istanbul to work with colleagues from Lithuania, Hungary and Georgia. At this my first meeting I am the only representative from the UK but luckily my colleagues from Lithuania and Hungary speak fluent English as do most of my hosts from Georgia. Tomorrow I have to give a presentation to representatives from a cross section  of universities in Georgia. read more

Career development in Georgia

November 13th, 2014
A joint presentation with Martin Pennington on current developments in HE careers in Georgia. Our experience, and what was achieved, of working in Georgia through a two year EU funded Tempus project. ICeGS presentation Nov 2014v8 (1) read more

Career competencies development with Georgian universities

February 5th, 2013
I am currently working for the University of Essex to help develop career management programmes in Georgian universities. The lead university is the University of Vilnius in Lithuania and other partners include representatives from University of Budapest and the State University Tbilisi plus a range of universities across Georgia. Download presentation   read more

Careers advice in an international setting

August 20th, 2012
For the past 12 months my colleague Jeanne Booth and I have been working with the Kitokie Projetai in Lithuania to produce a training programme for Careers Advisers working in universities and colleges across Lithuania. It raises the interesting question about how much this type of work easily travels across geographical borders and different cultures. Is the preparation of university graduates for the world beyond university essentially the same regardless of the country they are studying in? I suspect the answer is yes and no! The skills graduates need for the working world may be similar regardless of where they study but the labour market they face may be very different and therefore the job hunting strategy required is different. What is your experience of preparing graduates for employment in different cultures? How much of a reality is the global working place? read more

QUARTERLIFE CRISIS

April 2nd, 2012 Feature
You’ll have heard of the MIDLIFE crisis – BUT thousands of people leaving education are heading for a QUARTERLIFE crisis. With over 8% of UK graduates unemployed and a third not finding a graduate level job; many students will be dreading a summer filled with applications, interviews and rejection letters. So how easy is that transition into adulthood and the ‘real’ world? Listen to BBC Radio Nottingham this morning when Paul Hacking will explain the challenge facing graduates. My top 5 tips for surviving the QUARTERLIFE crisis and succeeding in the graduate job hunt: Be flexible – consider part-time work, short term contracts and doing 3/4 mini jobs, what is sometimes called portfolio work. Use social media to find work such as Linkedin only about a third of jobs are advertised. Network, network and network! Put yourself into new situations outside of your comfort zone. Update your IT skills. How about setting up your own blog to sell yourself to employers. read more

Career guidance across cultures

January 8th, 2012
What constitutes a successful application for the UK graduate job market? It is difficult for graduates outside the UK to understand the UK job market. Here are some useful tips to help develop successful job applications. Link to Copenhagen presentation – European Association of international Education read more