*Please note that this boost consists of three consecutive meetings that count as modules of the '‘Personal Professional Skills Lab’ ' for FSW first-year students of IRO, Political Science, Psychology and Cultural Anthropology studies. This boost is worth three credits towards the PPSL certificate. 

Introduction
Almost done with your first year and wondering how to proceed after this? Unsure about your further education or work? What actually suits your interests and dreamed future best? 

The world, including the professional one, is going through drastic changes. As a student, you face a professional future that is less predictable than it used to be. Even if you are convinced of your own abilities, direction and career prospects are not simply handed to you by social demand. You will have to chart your own course amid the uncertainties and the sea of possibilities. An essential aspect of this is to know and formulate your own talent and develop and wield it.  It also takes knowledge of your favorite way of getting yourself in the way.  

The Personal Development Centre therefore offers students who want to prepare properly for this a 'Talent Boost' programme with a small group of fellow students. The Talent Boost is an intensive, short-term mini-course of 3 interactive seminars, (peer) consultation (and possibly: individual coaching), each with personal preparation.

Course objective: getting to grips with your own course 
As a springboard at this stage of your studies, we offer this (free of charge) course that: 

• helps to increase your self-insight and confidence; 

• personal tools to help you find your way in your studies and in the job market. 

We help you gain insight into your own motives and talents, explore and anchor your professional goals, face and tackle self-limiting patterns, and help you commit to achievable challenges, recognizing the competences you have gained in life. The course helps you acquire these meta-skills and is thus not a direct presentation of the professional field. 

Talent Boost programme 
The Talent Boost combines three seminars in a logical sequence, that you follow together with  a small group. Read more about the elements of the programme underneath.  

Elements of the Talent Boost programme

Seminar I 09-05-2025 Compass on Purpose

Seminar I 09-05-2025 Compass on Purpose

We start with the Purpose Compass seminar. What is really important to you? Learn more about what you would like to commit to, and what you want to let go of. We work with tools that help you find and anchor direction in your own life, study path, ambitions and other activities.

Seminar II 12-05-2025  Dragon & talent

Seminar II 12-05-2025 Dragon & talent

The second session is on 'Dragon & Talent', and takes place in smaller groups (max. 6 students). Everyone has a unique talent: the umbrella term under which all your constructive traits fall. In addition, everyone has several dragons: patterns of behaviour you display under pressure that get in the way more than they help. Mostly, there is one dominant one. Learn more about your talent and dragon during this seminar. 

Seminar III 14-05-2025 Commitment

Seminar III 14-05-2025 Commitment

The boost ends with a seminar on Commitment. This seminar will help you make choices that are important to you and actually implement your intention. You will aim for a short-term goal. By setting an appointment with yourself in the form of a 'commitment' within a few weeks, you learn to design a realistic challenge for yourself. You then carry out that commitment yourself, and critically examine it before, during and after completion with a fellow student. 

Preparation

Preparation

As associated preparation for the seminars, you will answer self-reflection questions in your own online 'Learning My Way' portfolio. 

Optional: personal coaching (individual, 1x 30 min):

Optional: personal coaching (individual, 1x 30 min):

As part of focusing on your own development, you can make use of an individual coaching session that you arrange with your own PDC coach: a meeting (may be off-site or possibly online).