Michael Yip, an undergraduate Politics with International Studies finalist has recently returned from Dublin having attended the One Young World Summit as a delegate representing our University and the UK. Michael was chosen as a delegate having won the Warwick Global Advantage Gold Award.

This is a Summit at which delegates discuss, alongside world leaders and figures, global issues and develop solutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Topics included: Education, Global Business, Human Rights, Leadership & Government, Peace & Conflict and Sustainable Development.

Michael sat on the 'Ensuring Employability panel' alongside the Corporate Vice President of HR and Chief Diversity Officer at Siemens, Regional Accounts Director of LinkedIn (Hong Kong) and a Dublin City University PhD student researching entrepreneurial family businesses.

You can watch the panel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0rkf75LhKo​

Michael gave us an account of his experience:

I spoke about student attitudes and anxieties towards employment across different cultures, and stressed how a cultural awareness was essential for a successful career - despite the advent of professional social media (such as LinkedIn) and the use of good academic knowledge. The panel also discussed skills fade and technical competencies amongst other things.

I was selected for the panel due to my extensive work with student societies on campus, helping to connect otherwise non-interacting cultural communities together through discussions of politics, economics, history and society (general current affairs). (The SU societies: Warwick International Relations, China Public Affairs and Social Service Society - CPASS.) This work highlights the importance of being able to culturally interact and of having transferable skills to enter an international labour market with. I also interned with an NGO over the summer and drew on those experiences, too.

Aside from the panel, the Summit was a unique opportunity to network and learn from young people (who are the same age as me) from ~180 countries who are doing exciting and constructive things in their community. I spoke with a North Korean defector raising awareness of the plight of North Korean refugees hiding in China, for example - and hope to assist her work in the UK.

Such an experience would interest of Politics/IR students - approaching the problems we deal with in a theoretical/academic way through a practical lens instead. They may choose to attend, and it should be noted that I was in fact sponsored by the University itself.

Having attended the Summit on behalf of Warwick, I am mandated to make clear my plans as a result of attending the Summit. I should also promote the core values of the Summit to other 'young leaders' and the Warwick Advantage Awards, too.

These are: to continue implementing the discussive events (IR seminars, 'China Talks', the China Summit, the Model East Asia Summit), to introduce a volunteering scheme (collaboration between CPASS and the NGO I worked with), to train, to work with and to expose others to the rewarding society work that I do, and to raise awareness of North Korean human rights.