A Life-changing Erasmus experience has seen one recent graduate from the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) broaden her horizons and realise the world is now her oyster.
Heather Nicholas was on the Educational Studies and Humanities programme and has just graduated with a First Class honours from UWIC’s Cardiff School of Education.
After starting university as a rather nervous and quiet student, she took part in the European Union’s Erasmus programme to do a study period in the European University of Cyprus, and enjoyed her experience so much that she is now living and working in Mexico after realising that she had the confidence and skills to go anywhere in the world.
She said: “I loved every moment of my Erasmus experience. I’d recommend that everybody takes this opportunity. I made some amazing friends, had some life-changing experiences and I can honestly say that I had the time of my life.
“It has also changed the way I view my employment opportunities; I don’t just see my immediate area as the limits of where I can look for jobs now, I see everywhere as a possible place to work. I would happily move anywhere in the world to do something if that is what I really wanted to do and I know now that it isn’t quite as traumatic as everybody seems to imagine. In fact, I want to live and work abroad now as I have discovered a way of life that suits me much better than living at the break-neck speeds we do here in the UK.”
Heather decided to relocate to her current Latin American destination to teach English after meeting her Mexican boyfriend while they were both in Cyprus.
“I was in Mexico for six weeks at Easter,” she said. “I've been here now for just over a month and am planning on staying at least a year, but more likely two. My boyfriend that I met while on the Erasmus programme is Mexican, so we've moved in together here. But after that I would like to do a Masters degree, which looks likely to be in Australia.”
With her future plans centred around more travel and living abroad, Heather cannot sing the praises of her Erasmus experience enough. “I think that employers would view my taking part in the Erasmus as something that sets my degree apart from those who have only stayed at UWIC and studied. I think that to go abroad and study shows employers that the candidate in question is different; they are capable of being adaptable, independent and of taking initiative. People who have been away with the scheme learn a lot about themselves, a lot about other people and have experienced so many different things that prospective employers could really benefit from their innovative input.”
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