On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the “Symposium for Promotion of Advanced Foreign Talent Activities Aimed at Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Local Regions and Creation of Industrial Innovation” was held online as a commemorative event for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “Foreign Student Employment Promotion Program for FY2023,” which was adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in November 2023. The symposium was held online on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. The symposium was jointly planned and implemented by Ehime University’s International Student Employment Promotion Program Promotion Office and the Abilities Center Corporation, a participating organization in the program. 39 people from Ehime University and other universities, companies, economic organizations, local governments, and related organizations from across Japan attended.
After opening remarks by Kazuhiro Mitsunobu, Director of Institute for International Relations, and introduction of speakers, Professor Megumi Yuki, Director of the Career Support Office, Student Support Center for International Education and Student Support Organization, Gunma University, gave a keynote speech titled “For creating a system that makes international students want to choose ‘regional’ as their place of employment”. The keynote speaker, Professor Megumi Yuki, Director of the Career Support Office, Student Support Organization Center, gave a keynote speech titled “Creating a system that makes international students want to choose the ‘local area’ as a place of employment”.
This was followed by a panel discussion on the theme of “What Stakeholders Need to Do to Promote D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) in Local Regions and to Promote the Activities of Highly Sophisticated Foreign Human Resources Aimed at Creating Industrial Innovation”. Prof. Takao Inokuma, Vice Chair of the Working Group for the Project to Promote Employment of Foreign Students in the Department of Electronics, Information and Communication, Kanazawa University; Yuki Morishita, Special Lecturer in charge of B-JET, Foreign ICT Engineer Human Resource Development Program, Miyazaki University International Collaboration Center; Elvis Anoop Shukla, Representative Director, Aimayo, LLC; Ken Shiraishi, Director and General Manager, Abilities Center Inc. Director and General Manager of Sales Department of Shiraishi Ken Corporation, and Tomoko Izuki, Director of Ehime University’s International Student Employment Promotion Program Promotion Office, took the stage. The speakers provided information and exchanged opinions from the perspectives of universities and companies on their unique efforts to foster highly skilled foreign human resources and help them settle in the region and the challenges they face, as well as proposals for the utilization of highly skilled foreign human resources from the perspective of foreign nationals.
The event ended on a high note with remarks from Michiko Izumiya, coordinator and deputy director of Ehime University’s International Student Employment Promotion Program Promotion Office.
In the questionnaire after the participation, the following comments were made: “In the keynote speech by Professor Yuki, I learned from his practical examples that it is important to encourage international students to change their minds because having them become attached to the community leads to their willingness to work in the community,” and “Just because they are foreign human resources does not make them special. It is a matter of course to make sure that they can work and live (live) properly as a human being. I thought it was very important not only to gather people but also to understand their needs and reflect them in the program.
The International Student Employment Promotion Program Office will continue to support international students in their efforts to find employment.
＜Institute for International Relations, Office of Job Placement Program for International Students