Alumni Voice careers event

On 20 July 2021, The Careers Group at the University of London held its first Alumni Voice careers event for distance and flexible learners.

The event featured three alumni speakers from three different continents who work in the international development and humanitarian aid sectors.

We were delighted to be joined by Abdiweli Osman Mohamed, Zara Qaiser and Adi Walker, who each spoke about their professional journey since graduating from University of London and then took questions from the more than 50 students who attended the virtual event.

In their spare time, Zara, Adi and Abdiweli also volunteer through the University’s Alumni Ambassador programme, providing advice to current and prospective students.

You can read more about the panellists below:

 

Abdiweli is an international development and humanitarian practitioner with over 15 years of hands-on experience in the areas of education, social policy, local governance, decentralisation and emergency. He worked and held various capacities with many humanitarian international organizations such as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) as an emergency Specialist, Danish Refugee Council (DRC) as M&E Officer, and MercyCorps as an Emergency and Program Officer. Currently, he works with UNICEF as an Education Specialist, managing a growing education portfolio in the Puntland State of Somalia. He earned an MA in Governance, Development, and Public Policy from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and an MSc in Public Policy and Management from SOAS, University of London.

 

Zara holds a BSc Economics from the University of London and an MPhil Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. She has over three years of experience of working in the international development and humanitarian aid sector in Pakistan where she has worked on development projects on education, economic empowerment and digital economy. Zara currently works as a Youth Economic Empowerment Officer as part of the Youth Empowerment Programme at the United Nations Development Programme, Pakistan. She works with development stakeholders in the public and private sectors to advance the economic empowerment of youth and harness the excluded youth's potential to contribute to economic growth through programme management, research and policy support, and partnership development.

 

Adi has spent over 20 years in senior leadership, expert and advisory positions in the international humanitarian and development sector. He has worked with government organisations (bi-laterals), with NGOs, INGOs, with a private consulting company, and is currently an individual consultant. His professional and practical experiences, gained across six continents and in over 50 countries, have provided him with rich and in-depth inter and multi-cultural knowhow. As a ‘Pracademic’, Adi has backstopped these experiences with a ‘distance’ Masters (with distinction) from the University of London (that he has never visited), and a ‘distance’ Doctorate from Oxford Brookes… that he has!