Martijn Streefkerk regularly refers colleagues to the SCC.

Martijn Streefkerk has been managing director at CAPHRI for ten years now. A position in which he regularly advises colleagues to contact the Staff Career Centre. ‘It’s very nice that within the university we have an accessible group that provides professional guidance and training. All the experiences I know of have been positive.’

As managing director, he leads the team that supports CAPHRI’s personnel ‘in the broadest sense of the word’. In addition to the permanent staff, CAPHRI has 400 PhD students, of whom about 150 are internal. Two coordinators supervise these PhD students. ‘When the coordinators were appointed, I made them aware of the SCC. It happens regularly that PhD students can benefit from the career guidance offered there. After four or five years, they have to decide what they will do next. Some of them continue in academia; others take a step outside. PhD students do not always know what possibilities there are and what they really want to do. The SCC has tools and trainings that help them with these questions, so that they know which steps to take’, says Martijn.

A safe haven 
Not only PhD students can benefit from the Staff Career Centre, he emphasises. Support from the SCC can help in a wide range of situations, he has found. ‘From people who have suffered a burnout to people who want to switch jobs. In the annual appraisals I conduct, or that colleagues in the departments have with their team members, one sometimes comes across situations in which people are in a rut. It’s really nice for us to be able to refer someone to the SCC in such a situation because we know they will handle it professionally. A big advantage is that the SCC knows the university and at the same time acts reasonably independently. Staff feel safe at the SCC’.