This site is part of the Informa Connect Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 3099067.

Maria Vitoratos

Career Educator, Lecturer & Coach

MV Careers

As an educator, I am invested in ensuring that education is not limited to a textbook or the classroom. I am devoting my career to building and creating initiatives that build career readiness for youth aged 12-22.  By creating career education opportunities, I am able to bring all stakeholders together to collaborate and build the career readiness that is required to help a young person strive and thrive for inspiring careers. With youth unemployment rising and creating challenges for countries across the globe, career education should not be limited to a university application at the end of a student's secondary education. After leaving full-time employment in an institution in the UAE, I merged my entrepreneurial and educational skills and I continue striving to create new opportunities that will empower my audiences around the world. I work with parents, teenagers, school leaders, educators and professionals to bring the best opportunities for building career education across the UAE. When I am not building my career empire, I work on my two social projects #STRONG, and the UAE Careers Community. Moreover, it is evident that I use my various professional tools from coaching to teaching and everything in between to empower young people and the community.

MODERATOR SESSIONS

31 October, 2023 | 11:00 to 11:20
Armchair Chat Maria Vitoratos, Hana Rafeeq and Leena Rafeeq

SPEAKER SESSIONS

30 October, 2023 | 12:30 to 12:50
Creating Context and Professional Development for Career Practitioners & Educators to Create High Quality Career Readiness in K-12

Traditionally, career counsellors tend to focus on university applications. However, with unemployment for youth across the globe, it is essential that young people are provided with quality guidance that will provide competitive employment for them in the country of their choice. Career counsellors must learn how to merge theory and practice to increase the quality guidance for their students. This talk unwraps the need to increase career development knowledge for all stakeholders supporting young people for their future careers. Career development is not a university application and professional development is required for all educators, and counsellors cooperatively.

31 October, 2023 | 12:30 to 12:50
Armchair chat about the impact of high-quality counselling for student achievement, and well-being
31 October, 2023 | 13:00 to 13:45
Key Strategies for Preventing Burnout in Educators and Students: A Comprehensive Guide to Well-being

This panel is all about well-being for all and spotting the signs of ‘burnout’ early in children and educators. In addition to this, there are discussions on how to treat and manage these issues, and how to prevent them. Our well-being panel of experts will discuss everything educators need to know in order to avoid burnout in staff and students.

01 November, 2023 | 15:05 to 15:25
The Impact of Career Guidance for Career Readiness with Secondary Students in the United Arab Emirates

Career readiness is about helping young people gain awareness of self, knowledge of the requirements for work, and the skills to reason for oneself to make career choices for their future. The efforts to help people identify with careers have been traced back to the fifteenth century. However, the responsibilities for career guidance and career readiness for adolescents are an ongoing debate between educators and policymakers. The assumptions about career readiness are that the responsibility lies in the hands of secondary education institutions and that young people are appropriately guided, making them career ready. However, factors such as accountability, curriculum constraints, and the skills gap contribute to young people's ongoing challenges, leaving them vulnerable, and unemployed. This talk will share my study that explored the assumptions, the bias, the expectations, and the multiple perspectives within the community of expatriate students impacted career guidance.