Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
How International Education Impacts a Global Career
Do Employers Value Education Abroad Experience?
At first glance, the answer seems quite self-evident. How could they not? In a domestic economy which grows more linked to overseas markets and investors each year, companies must be on the cutting edge of new technological developments; always looking for opportunities in emerging markets in the developing world; constantly assessing their workforce requirements to insure that managers and workers understand the inter-related economic forces which impact their performance and the firms’ bottom line. Globalization is the most powerful economic factor influencing the job market in all regions of the world. Can we imagine the look of our global economy in 2025 and the skills and experience students will need, and employers will expect? What will the geo-political landscape look like? Will students be interning and working in North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or Cuba? Can we predict the industries and workforce needs which will emerge from the current political chaos in these regions?
Employers Do Value Education Abroad
In a report prepared by J. Walter Thompson Education for the Institute of International Education (IIE), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Australian Education Office, the company sought to determine employer acceptability and market value of an international degree among U.S. audiences – specifically students and employers. Its findings showed that “…employers most important selection criteria in recruiting a candidate are interpersonal skills, and when questioned employers believe that these skills are likely to be strong in a candidate who has had an overseas education experience. The challenge really is to more effectively link and promote this connection…[emphasis added]” (Thompson 2002)
In addition, the study reported that employers also found that candidates with international study experience possessed a wide range of skills desirable in their employees: these included, among others, cross-cultural communication skills, leadership, maturity, independence and cultural awareness. While this finding would likely warm the heart of any international educator, one of the ironies of the research is that only 3% of students surveyed stated that they expressly chose to study overseas because they believed that employers see those with some sort of overseas experience as more employable!
This finding points to a key issue, if not a vexing conflict, for international educators: Should students be encouraged to go abroad for altruistic reasons – i.e. to widen their world view and experience another culture (a goal cited by 60% of students in the Thompson study)? Or should their decision to participate in an education abroad experience(s) be linked more directly to future career goals and professional aspirations? Are these two points of view fundamentally incompatible, or are there opportunities before students depart, during their period of study abroad, and after they return to campus, to integrate their international experiences with both their career goals and the hiring criteria of employers? More on this in later posts.
Martin Tillman, President
Global Career Compass
One Comment on “How International Education Impacts a Global Career”
Leave a Reply
Global Career Compass 
If students are to be fully prepared to enter a global workforce with the skills which employers value, and also demonstrate a capacity to effectively translate their international experiences as undergrads – be it via work,study or internships – then campuses must do better to harmonize the advising process for students prior to their education abroad and upon their return to campus. A comprehensive campus plan for internationalization needs to recognize the value-added of study abroad and career service offices working together to enable students to understand how a students’ education abroad experience will fit into their career “toolkit” when they are developing a job search strategy -and marketing their international experiences to employers – in their senior year.
MT