Kent Global Passport:
Making the most of your international experience at university
In Week four, I got really curious about something called “Kent Global Passport”. Our Dean for Internationalisation, Anthony Manning, would be presenting this initiative to all students of the University of Kent, so I decided to go and have a look. In part because I am an international student but also because my academic background is linked to Business and Human Resources. Or maybe, maybe, I am just too curious about cool stuff that can enhance our experience as students at the university.
The Kent Global Passport (KGP) is a wonderful help for those who are interested in making the most of their international skills. These kind of skills have been some of the most required by important and prestigious companies, so if you are not aware yet of how your experience with internationalisation may impact your employability, just trust me as your organisational psychologist from now on, do quick research by yourself about what is happening in the job market at the moment or, even better, pay a visit to the Careers and Employability Services centre at our university.
But what is the Kent Global Passport? How will it help you? The Kent Global Passport is an online application that guides you through a set of inspiring questions about activities that you may have taken part in and your own reflections about those same experiences whilst a student at the University of Kent. These guiding questions – meaning that you can choose to answer them all, answer just some of them or come up with your own set of questions -are separated into six different sections, each one of them related to a specific aspect of internationalisation, such as volunteer work or languages.
By allowing you to register and think about these international experiences, the Kent Global Passport helps you to present interesting things that you have been doing alongside your study programme and it can also be a tool in the future whenever you apply for a job. Yes, that’s the coolest thing about it! When you finish your passport, you can print it on paper or as a pdf file and show it to your potential employer. This way, they will be impressed by your ability to engage in different activities, but mainly by your capacity to showcasing those experiences and express how they prove that you are one of the best candidates for the job.
Another plus: this application is completely free for you to use and since it is online it is also a work-in-progress kind of document, which you can add or change anytime you want. Just make sure you get it before your university login account expires – usually by the time you end your study programme. You can learn more about the initiative here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/global/passport/ and login here https://myfolio.kent.ac.uk/myfolio/artefact/globalpassport/ (current students only).