HomeNewsProgramme developed for UCOL graduates up for an award

Programme developed for UCOL graduates up for an award

By UCOL on Friday, 10 August 2018

A photograph of UCOL's Communications Team taken in August 2018. L-R: Jeremy Bryson, Christine Beech, Katherine Huynh, Jasmine Groves, Brendan Marshall, Georgia Thompson.

Since 1902 UCOL has had more than 140,000 students come through its campuses. In 2017 the institution made its first formal steps of engaging with former students, with the launch of the alumni section of the website.

From late 2017 until now, the momentum has kept on flowing, and now the Communications and Public Relations team at UCOL is a finalist in the upcoming Educate Plus 2018 Excellence Awards for work with Alumni and/or Community.

“We are all really excited that the development of the programme has been selected as a finalist. Early indications of engagement with our graduate’s show that they want to stay connected with UCOL and are getting really involved. Being a finalist also gives a feeling of pride; there is something rewarding about being selected by professionals in the same field,” comments Jasmine Groves, Senior Communications Advisor at UCOL.

Educate Plus has more than 1800 members from the education sector including primary, secondary and tertiary institutions across Australasia, in the fields of Admission, Alumni and Community Relations, Fundraising, Marketing and Communications.

“I have been building alumni communities for almost ten years, so I couldn’t resist joining my own Alma Mata and assisting UCOL to create a programme of engagement with its graduates,” reflects Jasmine. 

“Until now the programmes I have worked on have been within universities, but whether it be school, university or a polytechnic, the student lifecycle and graduate profiles have similarities, so UCOL branching into Alumni Relations was a natural fit”.

As well as a schedule of regular communications and events, UCOL is also committed to recognising the success of its graduates and 2019 will see the first Alumni Awards presented. 

UCOL has always been committed to student success and have had an ongoing interest of where our graduates move onto, this programme just formalises it, and encourages them to be more involved.

Finalists of the Excellence Awards will have five minutes to present at the EducatePlus International Conference Breakfast Blitz, at Sky City in Auckland in September. Later that day, awards will be presented at the Awards Lunch. 

Jasmine says, “There is something both thrilling and scary contemplating standing up in front of 500-plus of my peers, presenting my alumni work. It should be a nice warm up before presenting to delegates later that day on using LinkedIn in an educational environment.” 

Pictured above: A photograph of UCOL's Communications Team. L-R: Jeremy Bryson, Christine Beech, Katherine Huynh, Jasmine Groves, Brendan Marshall, Georgia Thompson.
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