World Cup Special: Brazil

When the World Cup comes around, the team that usually head the betting odds are Brazil. Having won the tournament a record five times and being the only team to win on every continent it’s been staged on, Brazil are always amongst the favourites and with their flamboyant style of samba football are the team everyone loves to watch.

Now Brazil is starting to make an impact in line with status as a footballing superpower in the jobs market. With one of the world’s fastest growing economies and already with the largest economy in South America, many major companies are expanding into Brazil bringing with them a number of opportunities for graduate employment. Microsoft are one firm who have expanded in to Brazil and have a range of employment opportunities, from sales roles to software development and consultancy, as well as graduate schemes.

However, despite Brazil’s increasing economic stature, large areas of the population are still impoverished. Some 26% of the population of Brazil leave below the poverty line. If working in Brazil isn’t appealing to you, you could try taking up a volunteering opportunity. Latitude is one organisation that provide you with opportunities to work on community projects, like in an orphanage or with street children or environmental projects in the rainforests. At around £1,800 it may not be cheap, but it’s a great way to help people less fortunate, experience another culture and looks good on your CV. A list of other volunteering organisations can be found on the Graduate Prospects website if the schemes Latitude offer don’t appeal to you.

For graduates, Brazil really is Kaka to a graduates Luis Fabiano – always creating opportunities!

Zara Chaudhry, PA to the Head of Service/ Administrator

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World Cup Special: It’s Paraguay’s turn!

Adverts for job vacancies based in Paraguay seem to be a rare thing or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that job adverts in English appear to be a rare thing. This isn’t really a surprise when you consider that the official languages of Paraguay are Spanish and Guaraní. I would imagine that anyone skilled in either of these languages would be able to find a great deal more information online than I could. However, here are a handful of websites that might be useful when job hunting in Paraguay:

International JobOnline

Job of Mine

Acciontrabajo Paraguay

Computrabajo Paraguay

Although tracking down job vacancies was difficult, information on voluntary projects is much easier to find so if you are interested in volunteering abroad or perhaps starting a career in development then Paraguay offers a range of opportunities.

Internships with Fundación Paraguaya.

This social enterprise works on innovative plans to reduce poverty and unemployment. They run three key programs focussing on microcredit, education for entrepreneurship and a Self-Sustainable Organic Farm School.

http://www.fundacionparaguaya.org.py/

Internships with Para La Tierra

These internships are aimed specifically at current biology students and recently qualified young scientists looking for some field work experience to help them gain employment after university.

http://www.paralatierra.org/

Other organisations with projects based in Paraguay include:

The Peace Corps (for US citizens) – http://www.peacecorps.gov/

Save the Children – http://www.savethechildren.net/alliance/

Kiva (microfinance enterprise) – http://www.kiva.org/fellows/

Paraguay Facts

The Paraguay national football team has reached the second round of the World

Cup three times (1986, 1998 and 2002) but has never progressed any further.

…..and for those of you who could do with a break from the football…did you know that Paraguay is the world’s third largest exporter of soybeans.

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Careers in Africa Summit

The annual Careers in Africa Summit, London is taking place from 28-30 May 2010. The event connects high calibre graduates and professionals seeking career opportunities across Africa.

Attendance is by invitation only, so apply now to be considered.

The event features:

- Pre-scheduled interviews with leading companies from across the African subcontinent such as Coca Cola, Vodafone, Chevron, BP, Oando and many others.
- Exclusive access to company executives to arrange ‘on-the-spot’ interviews
- Company presentations and career workshops.
- A unique opportunity to network with other graduates and professionals from around the world.
- An excellent chance of receiving a job offer.

For more information log onto http://www.globalcareercompany.com/content/content_736.html

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International Friendly Employers

Often we are asked by international students if there is a comprehensive list of employers in the UK who will consider employing an international students. Unfortunately such lists are hard to find and also quite difficult to keep up-to-date.

However, the most useful “list” you can use is that from the UK Border and Immigration Agency. Their Register of Sponsors details all the companies in the UK who have been approved to sponsor non-EU applicants.

What this means is that these companies have applied for the right and are positive about the benefits of recruiting non-EU candidates. This list isn’t a list of employers who recruit non-EU students. Not all companies on this register will recruit at graduate level either. But if they are not on this Register, they cannot recruit you. Therefore you need to identify companies on the register and then look them up online to find out about graduate career options.

The current register can be found here. Details of sponsorship can be found here.

The Careers Service organises Immigration Talks in conjunction with UCL Rights & Advice These talks will explain the various immigration schemes that will allow you to work in the UK post-graduation.

For more information visit UCL International Students Careers Programme

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