A warm welcome and introduction to ALU and the fair was done by Mr Theodore Sutherland, the Head of College. He shared the vision of ALU, their innovative learning model and the approach to preparing work-ready talent in the 21^st century. Furthermore, Mr Christopher Williams, one of our global experts in residence shared more insights on the importance of talents in an ever-changing world. He focused on what organizations have done to adapt to changing trends and the relevance of talent in adapting to these changes and believes that being versatile is important.

Following that was a Panel discussion about the Winning Talent in the 21^st Century. Discussions were done between three millennials and three employers namely; Mr Aroun Poligadu, founder of DSO Group, Mr Christopher Williams, also former SVP of Global Sales Strategy at Adidas and Mr Chris Suzdak, founder of Coffee Chat. They discussed on how companies are effectively making the most of entry level talent and adapting their engagement strategies to attract and retain such talent.

Mr Aroun Poligadu talked about the challenges of leadership and culture. Mr Chris Suzdak talked about openness of ideas and hiring freelancer. While Mr Christopher Williams mentioned about talent with passion, employees should be more devoted towards their work. Overview there was a showering of ideas between them. Students also pointed out about creating different platform, clubs and societies for them to showcase their talents.

The audience also participated by sharing their views about interviews and recruitment of staffs in an organization. Some thinks that after graduation, they need a job urgently while others are determined and know what they actually want to achieve.

Furthermore, an activity was conducted where employers and students were made into groups and different case studies were assigned to each group. Employers were given the opportunity to get the perspective on how ALU students think and solve problems related to the case. Afterward employers on each team had shared their observations through the session. It was very interacting and employers feedback were good as they were impressed about the solutions suggested by the students pertaining to the case. The reason behind this session was to assess the benefits of having 21st century skills in real-life business scenarios.

Lastly was the career fair session where YUVA’s staffs were given a stand in the cafeteria. The staffs were distributing our project updates to explain to students about our organisational vision and goals. They were also encouraged to join the organisation to get involved into social work and community service as a way to give back to society. YUVA had the opportunity to meet and discuss with people from diverse backgrounds in terms of culture, religion, gender and nationality. The audience was also made aware of the three programmes currently being run at the YUVA Academy. As the individuals began to show interest in joining the next batches of the programmes and, they were also intrigued by the background of the YUVA Academy which is a social enterprise initiated by YUVA as a way to be a self-sustained organisation.

Also, many students showed interest to work as interns and full-time staffs at YUVA. Some even hand over their CVs. Additionally, students were highly encouraged to register for YUVA’s upcoming event YUVA Annual Leadership & Entrepreneurship Summit (YALES) 2019, which will be held on the 6, 7, and 8 December 2019. In general, it was a great experience meeting and interacting with ALU students and it is an honour for YUVA to recruit these candidates as full-time staff and intern in our organisation.