Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

APU held an event titled "APU Global Career Dialogue: Designing How the Next Generation will Work and Learn", on Sunday, January 22, 2017. A mix of current APU students and alumni, corporate guests, and APU faculty and staff made up the audience of about 50 people.

A key pillar of APU's Top Global University (TGU) Project initiatives is to strengthen cooperation with alumni. To meet this goal, APU has instituted opportunities for alumni to share their opinions with faculty and staff. Additionally, alumni proposals have been incorporated into APU's Global Competency Enhancement Program (GCEP), a program that allows business professionals with the opportunity to experience our multicultural and multilingual campus environment while studying, gaining a better understanding of diversity and cross-cultural adaptability. GCEP is one implementation of APU's social collaboration initiatives.

On this occasion, with the aim of creating an even greater impact, these efforts joined forces to hold a workshop under the theme of "Looking toward 2030", discussing the ideal workplace in Japan where people from diverse countries can come together to work. Mixed groups made up of students, alumni, GCEP trainees, corporate guests, and university faculty and staff, participated in discussions on topics like "Rewarding jobs", "The ideal Japanese workplace in 2030", and "Making these things a reality".

Through intermixing and interacting with people of different backgrounds, each participant was able to gain new perspectives and ideas on what work will look like for the next generation.