🌍 Businet Unité Futures 2026 – thinking employability – Empowering students for the future 🌍
Last week we kicked off Businet Unité Futures 2026 with an online opening session on 2 March, followed by an inspiring in-person week starting Sunday 8 March in the beautiful surroundings of Porto Gaia. It was truly a very successful edition.
No fewer than 74 students from across the world came together to collaborate, learn from each other, and strengthen their employability skills in an international and inspiring environment. They worked in international, interdisciplinary teams and worked on key themes shaping their future careers: employability skills, experiential learning, emotional intelligence, resilience and intercultural collaboration.
A big thank you to all the students for their energy, openness and enthusiasm. Their engagement made this conference such a vibrant and meaningful experience.
Our sincere appreciation also goes to our guest speakers, who shared their stories with so much passion and inspired our participants with valuable insights. Stuart Moss for sharing your story and working on employability skills, Jurgen Basstanie for working with the students on Intercultural Communication, Julia Huisman for working with the students on Emotional Intelligence, Dale Lyon for getting them out of their comfort zone to show them how experiential learning works, and last but not least Kateryna Skyba for being here with us with your students and share your story about resilience and employability skills in times of war. You've shown how creative and courageous Ukrainians are...
A special thank you to the staff members who accompanied their students and supported them throughout the conference — their guidance and encouragement are essential in creating these learning opportunities.
Participants represented an amazing network of institutions: Khmelnytskyi National University (Ukraine), EuroAkademie Berlin (Germany), "1 December 1918" University of Alba Julia (Romania), Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, HOWEST University of Applied Sciences, UCLL Applied Computer Science (BCS), Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Hogeschool PXL, Haute École de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg (Hénallux) (Belgium), Fontys University of Applied Sciences, NHL Stenden Hogeschool Emmen, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), Leeds Beckett University and Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK).
A huge thank you to all students, staff and partners who made this week such a powerful international learning experience. Collaboration across borders truly prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
And of course, a heartfelt thank you to the wonderful colleagues at Isla Gaia (Paulo Furtado, Monica Santos , Firmino Oliveira da Silva , Helena Gonçalves , the colleagues and students who took care of the catering), for being the perfect hosts, and to my partners in crime in the organisation of this important event Stuart Moss , Dale Lyon and Yvonne Farrand . Working together made it all possible!
A very special guest was Bryan Kops. He participated in last year’s edition and helped us this year in organizing while doing his traineeship at Isla Gaia.
Looking back with pride and already looking forward to the next edition. 🚀