Higher education is often a key step in the career paths of students, opening new opportunities and preparing us for future employment. For healthcare students, university prepares them to enter a profession that has people at its centre. To provide the highest levels of care and support to patients and clients, healthcare professionals must learn to cooperate with people from all walks of life.

But what leads a person to take the path into the healthcare sector? What can we discover about ourselves as we learn to work with others? To find this out the EHECADI project has interviewed Cédric De Sterck, an Occupational Therapy student studying at ODISEE University of Applied Sciences in Belgium. We have asked Cedric about his experiences as a student occupational therapist and his participation in the EHECADI project’s recent training week in Finland.

• You are currently studying occupational therapy. Do you specialise in a particular field?

I am coming to the end of my 3-year BA in Occupational Therapy. My educational program does not have any specialisation. Once my course ends, I would like to study project management in occupational therapy. Later in my career, I want to be able to visit the homes of clients and support them by making low-cost adaptations that will help them to live independently in their homes. I hope that additional training in project management will help to give me a theoretical foundation to implement this process. In particular, I hope that further education will contribute to my creative thinking, thus, enabling me to suggest low-cost but effective changes so that everyone can benefit.

•  Could you please tell us why you decided to study this discipline?

To be honest I don’t know why. I started to study psychology in Leuven, another city in Belgium. But this wasn’t the right fit for me: I wanted to do something at a physical level, which also had a social aspect but didn’t stray too far away from psychology. Occupational therapy gives me all of these components together, so I thought, why not? Let’s give it a try! The course was in Brussels, and this was also appealing to me as I wanted to go into a new environment and a new city.

• Have you enjoyed your experiences as a student Occupational Therapist? Have there been any particular challenges or rewards?

At first, I found the social aspect very difficult, I was a much more introverted person, but doing occupational therapy has taken me out of my comfort zone and I have had to develop my social skills. It is something I have had to work on, it was a weakness for me, but now it is a strength.

As part of the EHECADI project, I visited Finland, joining 25 students from 6 different countries to contribute to the development of the project. I would never have had the confidence to do this in my first year, so I am glad that I was able to have this experience.

The course at ODISEE has also helped to improve my language skills. Belgium is a multilingual country, and Brussels is very diverse. As I have been working with French-speaking clients, my French has improved.

• As you have already mentioned, you took part in the EHECADI Teaching and Training Week in Finland with other students from across Europe. What were your main ‘takeaways’ or ‘learnings’ from the week?

The week taught me how to work in a team with all the students from different countries with different views and different cultures. It was a challenge to start, and we faced some difficulties in our working groups. We had to be aware of the different cultures and personalities and give everyone space to share their views.

The group I was working with focused on advanced working life skills. The materials given to us were very structured. Also, we received clear information on how to evaluate the course materials, which facilitated our work.

Overall, the other students were very social and extroverted. This helped things to go smoothly. I am happy that all the students were very open to the process and worked together.

• Does your university offer other opportunities to learn from international experiences? According to you, how can universities improve collaboration between students studying the same disciplines in different countries?

Here at ODISEE, an international placement is a compulsory part of the course, so there are a lot of opportunities for international experiences. It is encouraged to share what we have learnt from these experiences with others, so there are lots of chances for collaboration.

Yet, taking part in an international experience can be a big step. Students should have easy access to comprehensive information on these experiences, which can help the decision-making process. It is also important that funding is available to ensure that everyone who wants to can benefit from international opportunities.

It would be nice if the university could facilitate guest lectures from lecturers or students from other universities so they can provide more information on the cultural aspects of international placements and what else we need to know.

• The EHECADI project will work to develop a course for healthcare students, including student Occupational Therapists, to have a better understanding of societal needs and be able to increase their employability. In your opinion, what are the key aspects the course should include?

I think that it is important to know how to work in a team with people from diverse backgrounds. In your career, you will collaborate with hundreds of people in different settings and from different disciplines. It is important that we, as students, learn to cooperate with a wide variety of people. EHECADI already gave me my first experience of this, but there should be a stronger focus on interdisciplinary teamwork within healthcare courses.

To find out more about the European Health Care Final Dissertation (EHECADI) project, you can visit the project webpage here. To find out more about ODISEE’s Occupational Therapy course, click here.