A pioneering professional social network for Greek standards that aims to connect thousands of university graduates with the labor market, businesses, chambers, government agencies and corresponding professional social networks inside and outside Greece, was recently installed at the University of the Aegean by the company Cardisoft (a subsidiary of the Entersoft S.A. group).
It is one of the first universities in the country to proceed with such an innovative solution through the project [“Alumni Management and Support System (AlumniNet)” of the University of the Aegean with MIS code 304270] which was funded by the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF 2007-2013, “Digital Convergence”, with Priority Axis 02 “ICT and improvement of the quality of life”) and completed by the company based in Thessaloniki, which specializes in the design and development of business software and integrated information systems in Academic Institutions.
The web portal is called AlumniNet (https://alunet.aegean.gr) and at the heart of its operation are all graduates, postgraduate students and alumni of past years of the university.
Today, the University of the Aegean, with five faculties and a total of 16 departments in Lesvos, Limnos, Chios, Rhodes, Syros and Samos, is one of the youngest universities in the country. It celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Its total number of graduates reaches 12,500 (out of 44,000 registered students), while in the last five years, approximately 6,000 students.
The AlumniNet network is aimed at all of these graduates, but also at all of the employment agencies in Greece (and abroad) that are looking for executives with the specialties of the University of the Aegean and the skills of its graduates.
The full operation of the network (when all groups of interested users will be connected to the electronic platform in the near future) will offer each graduate, once they have registered and created their professional profile, the opportunity to connect with other graduates, with the university departments, the liaison office, businesses, and with other professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn. Through their connection, they can be informed about announcements from the department they come from, receive information about postgraduate education opportunities, scholarships, and career guidance. They can network and communicate with other graduates about job searches, working conditions, receive alerts for the addition of new listings and job advertisements, create a list of contacts (friends), and even find advice or useful information for a professional interview.
The data for completing the profile of each graduate-user includes additional information on work experience, studies, interests and other achievements in order to make him more attractive to interested employers. The graduate-user also has the ability to import data from other social networks such as LinkedIn. He can “upload” photos and videos and “download” files, communicate by e-mail, distribute, participate in the creation of groups and event management, update his professional profile with new entries and so on.
A key functional feature of the network is that it allows the horizontal dissemination of information to all subsystems operating on the AlumniNet platform and, like all social networks, it operates bidirectionally. This means that hundreds of Greek companies are given the opportunity to search for graduates of any department that meet specific criteria, but also to graduates of a department to be informed about listings related to educational/professional opportunities that have been posted in individual management systems. The posting, for example, of an announcement is automatically notified to all users of the subsystems with a graduate profile that matches the characteristics of the position. Companies that wish to utilize AlumniNet must also register on the network by completing a corporate profile with their details.
As explained by the head of the Software Research and Development department of Cardisoft S.A., Mr. Asterios Photiadis, “AlumniNet supports the creation and maintenance of social ties between the alumni departments of the University. This is very important for this particular Academic Institution, which is unique in the European university space with such a geographical reach. “It helps, he added, to inform graduates about the educational and professional path of their colleagues and to communicate their educational/professional choices, any experiences, prospects and avenues as well as the trends prevailing in the labor market.”.
In addition, the University of the Aegean has the ability, by monitoring the results of AlumniNet, to adapt to new data and indicate possible changes in the educational and research strategy of the departments, while it has the ability to integrate students and connect with other networks both domestically and abroad, with similar university networks.
Cardisoft claims that the future creation of a multi-network of graduates from various educational institutions in the country and at the same time a registry of Greek businesses seeking personnel would act as a catalyst in reducing the number of unemployed graduates, whose unemployment rate has skyrocketed to a high percentage.
Source: imerisia.gr
