Working together
It is a tradition already in the European Talent Support Network (ETSN) that leaders and representatives the European Talent Centers (ETCs) get together at a meeting organized by the European Talent Centre in Budapest (EUTC) at least once a year. This is an opportunity for learning about each other’s programs in more depth and for coordinating joint programs and applications. Unfortunately, the pandemic of the past years and war in a neighboring country now are not conducive to personal meetings, but a small group of representatives nevertheless decided to pay a visit to Budapest at the end of April.
Even from great distance
The purpose of the meeting on 27-30 April 2022 was intensive joint work. The focus was, on the one hand, on issues concerning the so-called 2022 Youth Summit. The Youth Summit is the bi-annual international event of the ETSN Youth Platform, taking place on the sidelines of the ECHA conference; it is the result of cooperation between ECHA and ETSN. The youth are introduced to issues relating to talent and talent support in an interactive way, at programs compiled specifically for them. This year’s ECHA conference and Youth Summit 2022 will take place in The Hague, from 31 August to 3 September and, as in previous years, EUTC also plans to send students to the Youth Summit. The tender for the student delegates will be announced soon.
Apart from the Summit, the representatives discussed the role of the ETSN at the ECHA conference, where the ETSN introduces itself to the conference audience via a symposium – another established tradition. This year’s program will bring many additional surprises. Yet another topic concerned the renewal of the globally accessible database of the various ETCs and their activities based on a Talent Map. The current database was created 7 years ago and it needs updating. There are many overlaps in the tasks of the Talent Centers, but their respective structures (organizations), maintainers, target groups etc. show many differences. To make an appropriate database, representatives with various backgrounds should cooperate. The professional work of the meeting was greatly facilitated by the participation of Dr habil Szilvia Fodor, Member of the EUTK International Advisory Board.
During the conference, we visited the Talent House of Matehetsz inaugurated in 2020, and had an opportunity to present the ongoing pilots coordinated by Matehetsz and review the most important domestic talent support achievements.
