JETAA UK 2014 Career’s Forum
There are various chapters around the UK and Ireland, including Scotland, the North East, the North West, the Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire, and the largest chapter in the world in London. JETAA chapters can be found all over the globe, in North America, Australasia, South Africa, South Korea, China, Singapore, Brazil to name but a few. Over 10,000 UK graduates have taken part in the programme, which has a total global participation of over 60,000 from over 60 countries.
For those returning to the UK (or arriving for the first time, JETAA is open to any former JET of any nationality living in the UK), JETAA is particularly active in professional networking and career development using the JET experience for a range of careers, Japan connected and others.
In October, JETAA North West held the first of a series of networking events for JET AA members and other Japanophiles across the region with Phil Jones, Managing director of Brother UK and Sally Knill, Global Reward Manager for Victrex Plc as our two guest speakers.
The event was held at the Barclays conference centre in central Manchester and attended by ex JETs working across a wide number of industries, as well as recently returned JETs looking for opportunities.
Phil Jones gave an enlightening presentation entitled ‘Cultural Divide’ and shared his thoughts on developing a more community-based work culture whilst retaining the need for hierarchy and structure from senior Japanese management and Sally shared some of the challenges she faced as a senior manager within a Japanese organisation.
The evening was a great platform for JETs and others connected to Japan to network and share experiences and ideas and the Japanese banquet went down a treat. The chapter received some great feedback and ideas from attendees for future events and hope this will be the first of many more to come across the region.
In London, Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) Plc hosted the first of a series of networking events at Japanese companies in the UK alongside JETAAUK. This event was attended by around 60 people, mostly ex-JETs working in various industries plus representatives from MCIE, JETRO and UKTI.
The first presentation was from James Gomme, Manager in the Corporate Communications & CSR Dpt., MCIE on the company’s history and the mind-boggling scope of their global trading and CSR activities. This was followed by Martin Pratt, COO of Triland Metal, one of their subsidiaries, who gave a fascinating overview of this organisation and has sparked a JETAAUK visit to the London Metal Exchange. Then, Peter Budd, Regional HR Manager talked about the variety of jobs available there and how ex-JETs with a grassroots experience of Japan could bring value to MCIE. Remi Tissa, an ex-JET working for MCIE, then spoke about how he used his JET skills in his career and gave some invaluable advice on diversifying post JET skills.
Julie Rogers, General Manager of Corporate Communications and CSR, closed the presentations along with Sarah Parsons, JETAA UK Chair, who worked together with them on organising this event. The evening finished off with invaluable networking time along with some delicious canapés and drinks and we were all treated to a bag full of goodies and information. JETAA UK would like to express our greatest thanks to Haruki Hayashi, CEO of MCIE for supporting this event and hosting such a valuable event for members. Thanks also go to all the presenters and to Julie Rogers, who put a lot of hard work into making it run so smoothly and professionally. Our members really benefited from the chance to network with like-minded professionals and find out more about Japanese companies in the UK.
Other events have included workshops with Teach First and panel discussions with recruitment consultancies, and there is interest in recruiting JETs into a wide variety of roles in the civil service, local government, finance and IT to name but a few, with a range of skills learnt in an international environment.
JETAA chapters hold events throughout the year and interested in hearing from any individuals or organisations interested in collaborating on projects which support social, professional, academic and community links between Japan and the UK. JETAA UK also holds a national event every year around the end of September for the newly returned, which is an opportunity for ex JETs to pass on the benefit of their experience to those just returned looking to use skills learnt in Japan in their future career. To discuss possible collaboration please email careers@jetaauk.org.uk
