Students and alumni of the University of the Algarve (UAlg) have a new job search tool, specially created for them. The Algarve Higher Education Institution (HEI) officially launched your job portal this Monday, an international site where university students and graduates, as well as companies in the region, are invited to register.
The official launch only took place yesterday, but the site has been online for about a week. During this period, around 1500 students and more than 30 companies signed up for the UAlg employment exchange, something that clearly reflects the relevance of the measure.
This portal is the result of a partnership between UAlg and Universia, a network created by Banco Santander that brings together more than 1200 universities from 23 Ibero-American countries. According to the general director of this project, Bernardo Sá Nogueira, the network covers «15 million students and teachers» in Portugal, Spain and Latin America.
The UAlg Job Portal is part of the «Trabajando» project, an initiative that was born in Chile 14 years ago and has since spread to 11 countries, including Portugal. In our case, the project is called «Working» and the UAlg Job Portal is the eighth to be launched in our country, and it is expected that, by the end of the year, a total of 14 dedicated job sites will be launched.
To join, just visit the portal and fill in the required data. Something that is valid for both students and companies, although the data requirements are obviously different. The portal is “user-friendly” and, in the case of students, it allows not only to look for work, but also to manage job applications and the documents used for that purpose, such as resumes and cover letters.
For companies, it is also easier to manage the search for human resources, with the option to search for candidates with very specific characteristics and to create preferential lists of potential candidates, online, for future reference.
When registering, companies need "to fill out a rather extensive form", but it is necessary, so that the Portal is also a tool that UAlg can use to better understand the labor market and follow the path of its students and alumni.
This is one of the advantages that the Rector of the Algarve University João Guerreiro points out to the project. "This portal helps UAlg's competence to guide its graduates to the labor market", he considered. «Basically, it's about matching UAlg's “offer” with the needs of companies», he considered.
This is a project that has no cost for UAlg, which is one of the 26 Portuguese HEIs that are Universia partners.
On the part of the companies, which in the portal's presentation session were represented by the Algarve organizations Hubel and Visualforma, this is also a much more practical way of looking for the ideal candidate for the vacancies that open.
The job exchange allows the general search of résumés (if their owners give permission) and insert very strict search criteria, to find the graduate that brings together different academic skills and competences.
For the founder and head of human resources at Hubel Isabel Conceição, this is a tool that will make her work easier, not least because the company she runs with her husband «has always bet on the area of knowledge» and has recruited many graduates from the University of Algarve .
On the part of Visualforma, the Portal is also seen as a very useful tool, not only for the present, but also for the future. «This portal can help the University to improve its training offer, in partnership with companies and bring it closer to the real needs of the world of work», considered Isadora Justo, representative of the Algarve company.
An effort that has to be accompanied by companies that «cannot always expect to hire graduates with 3 to 5 years of experience». In other words, it is necessary to find “bridges between the university and the business world”.
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