Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jakarta (UPNVJ) held a seminar at the Television Laboratory, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. This event was held on Wednesday, 18 May 2022, in a hybrid manner, attended by UPNVJ students and alumni of International Relations (IR) online via the Zoom Meeting platform. Through this event, it is hoped that UPNVJ students will be better prepared to enter the work environment in international organizations after students complete their studies at UPNVJ.

The event was opened with remarks from Dr. R. Dudy Heryadi as Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and Christoph Ratno Nugroho as Representative of International Relations Alumni from batch 2004, who currently pursuing his career as assistant manager for research and development of Bank BCA.The event continued with a CV reading session and presentation of material from Dr. Qing Xu as Regional Specialist, Climate Change and Innovative Finance, Bureau of Asia-Pacific, at UNDP Indonesia and Joyce Sinaga as Human Resources Specialist at UNDP Indonesia on “Career Development in International Organizations (UNDP).” 

Dr. Qing Xu introduced in detail about UNDP which includes a number of achievements, contributions, and focuses that UNDP will achieve for the next few years. In addition, various projects undertaken by UNDP Indonesia were also discussed in this session. “UNDP always has our presence at the country level, helping the country and their people to pursue a better and resilience future,” explained Dr. Qing Xu. This is a UNDP commitment that can be strengthened also by the competence and contribution of international relations students and graduates in the field of global development.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Joyce Sinaga explained further regarding the description of working at UNDP, several programs owned by UNDP and the stages to apply for these programs. “When you join UNDP, we aren’t just offering you a job. We are offering an investment in you and your future,” explained Mrs. Joyce. This is intended to provide a wide range of opportunities for students to develop their careers at UNDP while making a real action to the global community at the same time.

The presentation session at this event was then followed by a question and answer session. 

Furthermore, Mr. Andi Kurniawan as the Head of Undergraduate Program in International Relations, emphasized the importance of educating the public about a number of focuses of the UNDP agenda. “Our written vision is to attain global development 2030. It is very in line with the SDGs and I think we should get closer to UNDP’s mission and activities. We can use facilities (e.g. radio, photography, TV) to produce some publications or some activities that could educate much more people in Indonesia,” explained Mr. Andi.

Seeing the similarities in the missions of UPNVJ and UNDP, we hope that this event can strengthen UPNVJ and UNDP’s academic relationship with a number of internship and fellowship programs held by UNDP and its human resources that will support the success of UPNVJ students and alumni.