Tuesday, March 14, 2023

3:15 PM - 4:15 PM

111A

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Details

Young people are at the forefront of social change. Increasingly, they seek transferable skills and knowledge to shape a sustainable world around them. Universities are critical in fostering these change makers of the future. Universitas 21 (a global network of 28 universities), Common Purpose (a not-for-profit leadership organization) and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have long been active in Asia in equipping students with knowledge, leadership skills and international connections to actively engage with their local, national and global communities. HKU’s Migrant Outreach Education Initiative (MOEI), launched in Thailand in 2008, is one of several social impact programmes developed to empower Asian students in support of communities in over 10 countries in the region. During the height of the 2021 pandemic, U21, in partnership with Common Purpose, offered over 2000 students from any academic discipline and social background the opportunity to work with NGOs and industry in providing innovative solutions to pressing sustainability issues in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam Indonesia, and Australia. In this paper we critically examine our collective experience of creating innovative programmes to upskill students, enabling them to engage in the many and varied challenges that their communities and countries will face in the future. Learning Objectives: • Understand how to create innovative homegrown programmes from, and for the Asia-Pacific region; How to develop and sustain genuine collaborative partnerships for social impact, bringing together local communities, studies and charitable and commercial organisations, supporting them in furthering their mission in a sustainable and socially conscious way. • Appreciate how innovative delivery models can deliver on equity and inclusion goals by engaging hard-to-reach student groups at scale, serving marginalised communities; Harnessing the potential of online formats to increase the reach and scalability of social impact projects. • Knowledge of enabling and challenging students to work in an interdisciplinary, intercultural and collaborative way to think globally and act locally; Designing programmes equipping students with cross-cultural leadership, teamwork and communication skills, preparing them for careers and challenges that may not exist yet; Understanding of social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship to support students to develop contemporary skills for a changing world of work. Target Audience: Student Employability, Innovation and Enterprise, International Partnerships, SDGs, Student Mobility, Educational Innovation/ Experiential Learning Target Audience Level: Advanced

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Presenter(s)

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Chairperson