Career Support at Meiji Gakuin University
Greetings
Meiji Gakuin University makes “Do for Others,” a principle that its founder James C. Hepburn held to for his entire life, its educational philosophy. The purpose of studying at our university is to gain the knowledge and the skills to be able to help as many people as possible. By having a diverse range of experiences during their years of study, we want our students to learn about their own abilities and aptitudes, and to gain the resolve and the ability to respond to people’s needs and actively work to change society following their graduation.
Career support at Meiji Gakuin University does not only mean support in finding a job. Our aim is to provide a system that supports our students in achieving independence in society and in their careers. Individuals who are not independent themselves will find it difficult to contribute to others.
The foundation of this support is provided by an educational program that supports our students in turning towards themselves (self-understanding) and turning towards work and maturity (connection to society and career) and a system of consultation offices. In concrete terms, our initiatives include the constant upgrading of the Hepburn Career Design Program, and the appointment of consultation staff with extensive specialist knowledge, skills, and experience.
In addition, in order to foster fundamental skills in our students that will serve them in good stead as full-fledged members of society, we work to create a cycle in which we provide students with opportunities to reflect on their student life and make discoveries about themselves through extracurricular lectures and internships, and based on this to further extend their fundamental abilities by means of long-term study under their instructors, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs.
In the support that we provide for our students’ efforts in finding employment, we prioritize support that enables them to find themselves and to move towards careers that will make them full-fledged members of society, and work constantly to enhance programs that support students in becoming private sector workers, government employees, or educators.
Career Support System
From university entry to graduation, career support that connects the present with the future.
As subjects tailored to assist students in career design, the university offers the Hepburn Career Design Program, which can be taken from first year, in addition to a variety of internships and other programs offered by individual faculties and departments. Each faculty also offers extracurricular lectures to assist students in taking up careers as judicial scriveners, certified public accountants, and civil servants, to take national qualifications, and to study languages. A Career Center is located in the university office, where staff members including qualified career counselors and individuals with extensive experience of working in the private sector are able to consult with students and offer assistance in planning programs of extracurricular lectures in order to provide support for career planning and job finding.
1. Hepburn Career Design Program
2. Extracurricular lectures related to qualifications, becoming a civil servant, and languages
3. Career Guidance -In stages from first year-
4. Support for Employment-seeking -Three-dimensional Support from Programs, Expert Advice and Systems-
5. Educational Career Support Division -Specialized Support for Students desiring a Career in Education-
1. Hepburn Career Design Program
In an effort to systematically offer students assistance in achieving self-understanding, designing their careers, and connecting to the world of employment, the Hepburn Career Design Program has been offered since fiscal 2013 as a common subject by all faculties. The program enables students to learn actively rather than passively, to connect to the broader society and learn through experience, and to learn through small-group discussions. The subject fosters independence, the ability to work in a team and communicative ability, logical thought and the ability to express oneself, the ability to identify and solve social problems, and an awareness of the demands of work.
Life Design Lectures are held as part of the Hepburn Career Design Program, one of the subjects offered by all faculties as a common Meiji Gakuin University subject. In the first year, Life Design Lectures 1 focuses on (1) Clarifying the goals of university life from a variety of perspectives through individual work and group work, and (2) Improving students’ fundamental academic ability towards the future with a focus on reading ability. In the second year, Life Design Lectures 2 focuses on (1) Realizing an understanding of the connection between oneself, others, and society and clarifying concrete goals for the future through communication training and social analysis, and (2) Improving students’ fundamental academic ability towards the future with a focus on mathematics. By this means, students prepare to plan their future and select their career while gaining fundamental essential abilities as full-fledged members of society. In Life Design Lectures 3 and 4, taken from the third year onwards, staff members of companies that represent Japan, government organizations, and NGOs offer classes on subjects including corporate CSR and the ways in which companies cooperate with other sectors in order to address social issues, and students involve themselves in group work and making presentations.
2. Extracurricular lectures related to qualifications, becoming a civil servant, and languages
- Faculty of Law Extracurricular lectures concerning national tests and becoming a civil servant
- Department of Juridical Studies Support Project for Civil Service Tests (For students of all faculties)
- Faculty of Economics Lectures to support the acquisition of economics and management-related qualifications
- Center for Liberal Arts Lectures to support the acquisition of language-related qualification
- Career Center Lectures to support the acquisition of Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) qualifications
3. Career Guidance -In stages from first year-
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Topics for first year |
＜Career Path Orientation＞Career path orientation is held as part of the general orientation process when students enter the university, and features staff from the Career Center as speakers. This orientation program considers the idea that students who get the most out of their university lives have a better chance of setting a strong career path and getting the most out of their lives as members of society. In other words, university life and selecting a career path and finding employment are connected rather than being discrete categories. Students also receive ADVICE from OB & OG, a pamphlet compiling interviews with previous graduates, enabling them to receive advice on university life, the selection of a career and finding employment from students who came before them. |
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＜Career Guidance for New Students＞We provide guidance in the formation of a career path for first year students in the spring semester. Every year we invite Katsuhiro Honda, the career consultant known as PONTA, who presents the PONTA Shingaku Seminar column on Recruit Shingaku Net, as a guest lecturer. The theme in 2011 was “From Ordinary Person to Over-reacher.” Via concrete advice regarding all aspects of university life, from study, clubs and circles, to part-time jobs, volunteering, overseas study and socializing, these lectures offered guidance on overcoming wariness of over-reaching oneself to discover its excitement. |
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Topics for second year |
This career guidance program focuses on areas including looking back on first year university life and setting new goals, connecting to a career path, and fostering fundamental abilities. |
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Guidance for individual career paths is mainly provided for second year students.
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This is an on-campus internship program that has been offered by the Career Center since summer 2009. By jointly developing and implementing the program in cooperation with private companies, we are able to foster students capable of collecting and organizing career information. At the same time, we help students develop basic abilities as working members of society through group work in small mixed groups of first, second and third year students. |
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These extracurricular lectures for first to third year students have been offered by the Career Center since fiscal 2013. They are divided into three classes: A career design class, a CSR internship class, and a simulated employment-seeking class. In the career design class, career consultants guide and support students in the process of actively seeking out, organizing, and studying career information. The CSR internship class takes corporate CSR activities as its subject, and develops students’ problem-solving ability. In the simulated employment-seeking class, students engage in simulated employment-seeking activities, while being provided with support for a process of finding themselves and turning towards their career path and their future as a member of society. |
4. Support for Employment-seeking -Three-dimensional Support from Programs, Expert Advice and Systems-
Programs
The Hepburn Career Project is an extracurricular lecture program conducted by the Career Center to support employment-seeking activities by students who dream of future careers in the advertising and media, airline, or hotel fields. Commenced in summer 2008, 155 third year students participated in fiscal 2012. Fourth year students who participated in employment-seeking activities as part of the project in fiscal 2012 found employment with the companies shown below. (As of February 2013)
| Advertising and mass media | OPT Inc., Daiko Advertising Inc., DIP Corporation, en-japan inc, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), GENTOSHA MEDIA CONSULTING INC., Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd., and others |
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| Airlines | Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. (flight attendant), JAL SKY Ltd. (ground staff), JAL Express Co., Ltd. (flight attendant), and others |
| Hotels | Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo Dome Hotel, Yamaman Wishton Hotel Co., Ltd., and others |
| Manufacturers, trading companies, distributors, financial institutions, etc. | LOTTE Co., Ltd., Kewpie Corporation, PARAMOUNT BED CO., LTD., DAIWA HOUSE INDUSTRY CO., LTD., Sumitomo Real Estate Sales Co., Ltd., Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd., Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., The Bank of Yokohama, Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., The Chiba Bank, Ltd., East Japan Railway Company, Japan Federation of Bar Associations, and others |
Divided into five themes (self-analysis and industry/company research, entry sheets, group discussions, interviews, and employment-seeking etiquette), these lectures offered by the Career Center provide support for employment-seeking activities. Lecturers include individuals with extensive experience of corporate human resources, GCDF-JAPAN career counselors, career development advisors (CDA), and Class 2 career consultants. In fiscal 2012 we held 11 classes and seminars consisted of six to eight class periods, with the participation of 450 third-year students. Following the completion of the lectures, the lecturers conducted simulated interviews and provided individual instruction.
Expert advice
Since fiscal 2009, qualified career counselors have been appointed to the Career Center as specialized consultants. These consultants offer consultations concerning employment-seeking and career selection, checks of application documents, interview training, and telephone support for the employment-seeking activities of fourth year students to a total of several thousand times a year.
In response to the difficulties in employment-seeking that students have faced since the Lehman Brothers collapse in fall 2008, the Career Center has worked to enhance the support it provides to fourth year students in their employment-seeking activities. Support offered includes the holding of on-campus employment-seeking orientation sessions, the provision of telephone support (to a total of several thousand times a year) for fourth-year students in their employment-seeking activities, introduction to employment opportunities by staff members, and the holding of interview sessions to introduce employment opportunities and employment-seeking consultation sessions in cooperation with Hello Work and private sector companies. In fiscal 2012, we further enhanced our efforts to provide introductions to employment by appointing staff members with rich experience as supervisors of corporate human resources and career counselors as employment-seeking coordinators for fourth year students.
Systems
For slightly less than 3,000 students per academic year, every year the Career Center receives some 5,000 to 6,000 inquiries concerning availability for employment from private companies, welfare facilities, and other institutions. It presents this information to students by means of its Internet Employment-seeking Support System.
With the cooperation and support of the Meiji Gakuin University Alumni Association, in August 3 2009 we established the Meiji Gakuin University Graduate Employment-seeking Support Office in the Head Office of the Pasona Group in Tokyo’s Otemachi district. The office, established to support young people in their employment-seeking efforts, is administered by the Career Center. Seeking to support the employment-seeking or employment-changing endeavors of graduates of Meiji Gakuin University and students who have completed post-graduate courses at the university, the services provided by the office include career counseling, the polishing of curriculum vitae and employment histories, the offering of advice, lectures concerning interview strategies, classes on interview etiquette, and the provision of employment information.
5. Educational Career Support Division -Specialized Support for Students desiring a Career in Education-
We are working to enhance our support for students seeking to become educators in kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and special needs schools. We have established the Career Center Educational Career Support Division in Building 13 on our Shirokane Campus, where we offer a variety of lecture programs and guidance concerning career development, conduct a variety of lectures, and provide support for passing teacher qualification tests in stages for first to fourth year students seeking a career in education.
We have staffed our Educational Career Support Division with staff members possessing extensive experience, including school directors with a rich knowledge of the actual practice of education and members of educational committees. These educational career advisors are able to offer students detailed practical instruction based on their experience.
This program can be taken from first year, and encompasses elements including extracurricular lectures concerning strategies for tests for teaching positions and the sitting of simulated tests.
- Mainly targeting first and second year students
Educational career guidance, briefing meetings concerning educational internships, lectures focusing on the classroom, lectures concerning study methods to shore up the basics, etc. - Mainly targeting third and fourth year students
Briefing sessions concerning employment by municipal boards of education, briefings concerning educational internships, briefings for students seeking to teach at private schools, lectures concerning the writing of papers and essays, lectures concerning interview strategies, lectures concerning strategic study techniques, lectures concerning the summer semester, lectures concerning the fall semester, lectures offered immediately before commencement of term as teacher, lectures offering advice from former students who are now teachers, etc.
To support students seeking to become teachers in gathering information, we have prepared a variety of materials related to tests for teaching positions which can be freely viewed or borrowed.