In the second semester of each academic year, I teach graduating students of the Higher Diploma in Events Management and Marketing. This is the last semester for these students at HKCC. When it gets closer to the end of the semester, there is a growing sense of the forthcoming departure among students. They start talking about applying for further studies at other universities or looking for suitable career opportunities in the events industry. My role then inevitably extends to providing educational and vocational advice and assistance.
Some students would come to me with various events-related programmes offered by different local and overseas educational institutions, and ask me to help them choose the best ones. Others who plan to start their career in the events industry after graduation would ask me about how to find a good job as soon as possible. After busy rounds of consulting and subsequent reference letter writing, things seem to quiet down as the final exams are looming. It all looks like the end of the semester has truly arrived and the last class lecture becomes the good place to bid farewell to them.
However, not too long after the end of the semester, some of them would show up at my office again, asking for advice about how to do well in a job interview or telling me that they are going to continue their studies at other universities, in Hong Kong or the UK. Some even rush to see me for guidance the day before a job interview and request for an urgent reference letter for a particular job.
I often receive e-mails from past students, studying at PolyU or UK universities, for direction on how to do their class assignments and dissertations. There are also many students, who are now working in the events industry, not only in Hong Kong but also in China, keeping in touch with me and letting me know what event projects they are doing. A couple of weeks ago, one of my students who graduated this year sent me an e-mail telling me that she had successfully got a job offer from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), and thanked me for my help. I felt so happy because I used to work for the TDC and now one of my students also works there.
Therefore, for me, there is really no end of contact with my students. The last semester is only the beginning of a new stage of building an ever expanding network of affiliation with them in the events industry.