IFTM is hosting until 3 October a set of career talks featuring a number of alumni from the Institute’s Heritage Management Bachelor Degree Programme. The series, delivered via videoconference technology, aims to help current students and fresh graduates from the Heritage Management Programme learn more about the various career paths available to them, and the relevant skills required for each route (programme available here).
The set of 4 webinars, themed “IFTM Heritage Management Alumni Online Career Talk Series”, had its first session on 12 September. The series is being put together by a group of IFTM alumni as part of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of IFTM. Heritage Management alumna Ms. Fannie Lin Fengwen is the driving force behind the initiative.
“When I was a student, I was not clear about what I could do after graduation,” she recalls. “So, I thought we, as alumni engaged in different fields related to heritage, could talk about the scope of our work and about the respective skills required, in order to help students to figure out what they needed to focus on as part of their studies.”
The webinar series features 9 alumni – employed variously in fields ranging from cultural heritage management, museum work and underwater archaeology to higher education – in either the private or public sector. Some of the alumni are based in Macao, while others are based respectively in Mainland China, India and the United States.
“I thought it was not going to be enough to share my own experience,” says Ms. Lin, adding that often Heritage Management students had a narrow view of the career options available to them. “So, I thought: ‘Why not hold a talk series, inviting alumni from different batches, and feature different possible career paths?’”
Ms. Lin is a cultural professional based in New Delhi, India, working in the museums and culture sector. She graduated from IFTM in 2013. Her work experience includes museum and cultural project planning, budgeting, marketing and fundraising.
She acknowledges that not all Heritage Management graduates end up in a job directly related to heritage. But Ms. Lin says it is important to have professionals with training in Heritage Management working in other sectors. That is because the ideas of the discipline – regarding preservation and protection – touch different areas of society.
Ms. Lin praises IFTM for providing Heritage Management students with in-depth knowledge and practical skills, important for developing a successful professional career in this area. “Students learn how to do presentations and how to tackle problems. These are all valuable and really useful tools, especially for fresh graduates,” she says.
Ms. Lin advises current IFTM students to be proactive in their career planning and contact directly IFTM staff for support if needed. Alumni are also a useful source of information, always ready to provide advice, she adds.
