Employability

Go back

Working Group

Chair: Orla Bannon

Orla Bannon is the Director of Careers at Trinity College Dublin. She has responsibility for managing the scale and quality of academic and student engagement with careers, as well as partnerships with employers, to deliver a truly world-class careers service at Trinity. She provides leadership to the Careers Team, promotes the value of the Careers Service across the University, and acts as a centre of expertise, advising and contributing to the University’s objectives in terms of employability and skills development, and the wider student experience.

Orla holds a degree in Biochemistry from Trinity, an MBA from UCD/RCSI and a Diploma in Personnel Management (NCI). She has over 25 years of management experience in both the public and private sectors in areas such as healthcare, higher education, IT and publishing.

Vice-Chair: Annette Retsch

Annette Retsch is head of the Career Centre at the University of Würzburg since its inception in 2007. Her responsibilities include the strategic direction of the development, planning, evaluation of about 100 transversal skills workshops and lectures every year. She specialises in individual career consulting and methods for sustainable professional development. Furthermore, she was responsible for the conceptual development of an individualised Virtual Exchange Program and allowing its embedding in curricula.

Prior to her commitment to employability activities, she graduated in German and English Studies with the state examination for the teaching profession at secondary schools and completed her PhD thesis in German and English linguistics on paratextual elements in German literature.

Working Group Focus

We are living in fast-paced, dynamic, and uncertain times where economic, societal, environmental and global needs are rapidly changing and where a highly skilled adaptable workforce is essential. A strong knowledge economy needs opportunities for lifelong skills development, which matches the skills needs of employers, both now and in the future. These skills allow for new value creation and problem solving addressing the challenges of our time. Continuous innovation and agility in higher education and research is required to futureproof the graduate pipeline with the skills that will allow society and industry to flourish and grow sustainably.

Enhancing students’ employability to meet the rapidly evolving needs of learners, society and industry is now a core part of a higher education institution’s objectives. In this context, the collaboration and exchange of experiences within the EmployabilityWG of the Coimbra Group aims to:

Improve the visibility and recognition of the value of careers and employability services across Coimbra Group universities.
Increase joint collaborative projects on how career services are organised, deliver their services, and support their universities (professionalisation of career services).
Prepare students for the 21st century global labour market and lifelong learning through the acquisition of key future skills.
Explore how Coimbra Group universities can support initiatives under the EU’s Union of Skills.
Develop careers and employability initiatives to support Coimbra Group’s Durham Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainability.

We are an active Working Group which constantly seeks to identify new areas for conjoint work, to explore common issues and challenges across our universities, to share our learnings and drive innovation for the enhancement of our services for the benefit of our students.

Priorities for 2025-2026

Increase our awareness and understanding of micro-credentials and the opportunities they present for careers, employability, and skills development within Coimbra Group universities.
Drive understanding of key future skills and labour market trends across careers and academic staff and how we can support students to build their capability in key skills areas.
Explore how to improve student engagement with careers and employability services and ensure that our services remain relevant to students and meet their evolving needs
Explore how AI can influence and enhance our service delivery and how we work.
Increase awareness of the value and relevance of careers and employability services in Coimbra Group universities through publications, workshops, and increased collaboration with other Coimbra Group Working Groups.

Recent highlights since June 2024

Completion of the WG Situational Analysis Report on employability and careers services across Coimbra Group universities for publication in Q2 2025.
- Research overview and recommendations on Skills for the Future of Work.
Delivery of a successful professional training workshop on Future Skills on 27 and 28 November 2024 at Trinity College Dublin, attended by 16 CG universities, with support from the Coimbra Group WGs Funding Scheme
EMP WG member (Katrine Moland Hansen, University of Bergen) selected as Co-Coordinator of CG inter-WG cooperation on AI.
Establishment of two new subgroups and development of detailed plans to:
- improve student engagement with our services (Student Engagement Subgroup).
- explore how AI can influence and enhance our service delivery and how we work (AI Subgroup).

Ongoing/forthcoming activities 2025-2026

Plan a joint workshop focussing on careers and employability services support for PhD students in collaboration with the Doctoral Studies Working Group.
Develop a Future Skills toolbox of resources, materials, and guides for use in training sessions with students to include green and digital skills.
Map involvement and experiences on micro-credentials across Employability WG members including recommendations for the future.
Develop new strategies / exchange practices on supporting students with disabilities.
Development of a good practice framework for Career Services for working with academics and supporting academic-enterprise engagement, e.g., work-based learning.
Advance work of the Student Engagement and AI Subgroups to deliver on planned objectives.
Collaborate with the Academic Exchange and Mobility WG to clearly identify and articulate the skills that can be gained through exchange and how these contribute to students’ employability.
Develop strategies / exchange practices on supporting international students to transition into national and European labour markets.