Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
Why Study Abroad?
It’s not often that the general public gets an opportunity to read a story and hear the voice of an intelligent and articulate student about the meaning of their study abroad experience –but here is an essay that appeared in the Washington Post magazine:
The writer writes about the meaning of her experience on many levels and she acknowledges that although she was in Spain – and not the developing world – this did not detract from the lessons she learned and the experiences which deeply affected her…
It might be worth sharing this essay on campus study abroad websites so other students can listen to how a self-described introverted student grew through her immersion in a highly outgoing and social cultural environment.
Building Employment Opportunities The Old Fashioned Way
Whose responsibility is it to bridge the skills gap? Developing an active partnership on campus can open a window to innovation & action.
The UK Globe & Mail published this interesting piece http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/bridge-your-own-skills-gap/article15056920/?service=mobile#menu written by a social entrepreneur whose mantra is, “bridge your own skills gap.”
There are many ways in which students and recent grads can acquire the skills and tools to be more relevant in today’s workforce: On campuses across the country [i.e. in the UK], there are over 10,000 student groups and extra-curricular activities – but only about a third of students get involved outside the classroom. My first experience in sales, marketing, HR and leadership came from on campus activities. Off campus, there is no shortage of opportunities available to students to gain practical, hands-on skills and exposure through internships and work-study programs.
Our generation has all of the ingredients we need to be successful, but above all else, the right attitude to see beyond a linear career path and the courage to take our careers into our…
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Graduate Business Schools & Employability of International Students
Has the management of international student enrollment gotten any easier in terms of the global economy? Only accepting students who are a .”good fit” so placement numbers look good appears terribly self-serving (is manipulative too strong a word?)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304072004577323861675549408.html There seems to be good news and bad news: we know there is a rise in enrollment of international students – especially from from India and China – at all levels of of U.S. higher education. But what to do about the soft job market? What is the career office to do to develop employment options to match the rise in demand?
At Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, one-quarter of the Nashville, Tenn., school’s 2011 M.B.A. class was international, with a number of students from China, India and South Korea. “If we have too high a [percentage] of international students and then we can’t place them, shame on us,” says Tami Fassinger, chief recruiting officer at the school.
I appreciate the candor in this statement. It’s not merely a global search for new sources of revenue, is it? There does need to be an overall institutional…
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How global workforce development leverages opportunities for U.S.grads & Indian start-ups
Id like to learn where else in the world there is an active linkage between diaspora graduates and home-country employment opportunities. Comments?
Great to welcome in 2012 with an article in the Washington Post which speaks very directly to the inter-connections of global workforce development with U.S. higher education! See this piece at http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/WashingtonPost/Content/Epaper/2012-01-01/Gx4.pdf. Here we see the new draw of high-tech start-ups in India for U.S. grads willing to risk re-location coupled with the way in which U.S.-educated Indian professionals can utilize their ties to their alumni institution ( in this case the University of Pennsylvania) to secure the talent they need to grow their business. I see this as a growing phenomenon in the case of both India and China in coming decades. How telling to see Indian companies recruiting U.S. talent! The old fear of brain-drain is gone. The borderless economy opens doors in all directions.
The Purposeful Connection of an Internship to Student Career Development
As students begin returning to campus this month, I’m re-blogging some early posts…
These are my notes from my webinar presentation conducted by the Sub-Committee on Work, Internships and Volunteering Abroad of NAFSA, Nov. 15, 2011“Integrating the Internship Experience Into Long-Term Career Development”
A NEW RATIONALE FOR EDUCATION ABROAD —
- Given the impact of globalization in the workplace, and in light of the new skills in demand by businesses, nonprofits and government, it’s to a student’s advantage to consider the career implications of what may be a once-in-a –lifetime educational experience. Today’s global marketplace demands increased adaptability, cross-cultural sensitivity, political awareness and intellectual flexibility.
- Globalization’s impact on workers and the workplace has leaped across national borders and transcends cultures.
- Businesses are taking a more active interest than ever before in the outcomes of education abroad experiences as they struggle to build a sophisticated and informed workforce
- Employers, especially those doing business internationally, are interested in whether or not a job applicant demonstrates…
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Lifetime Employment “vs.” Lifetime Employability
I’ve been a longtime user of LinkedIn and consulted on its effective use as a tool in the job search process. The site is universally – across national borders – seen as an indispensable tool for any professional (whether employed or job seeking). And so this article reporting an interview with the site’s founder, Reid Hoffman, was intriguing:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702304168904580031461652986300.
Hoffman has a way with metaphors and I liked his statement that [private sector] employers, to remain in tune with the rapidity of change in the marketplace, will need to hire increasingly more “adaptive” employees. However, he points out that employees also are changing how they view their loyalty and commitment to their current employer. Thus, they are always on the lookout for their next job never feeling secure in their current assignment. And so the new contract between the two parties is more of an open “alliance.” One which acknowledges the insecurity of the other –the best the employer can hope for is to hold on to good people by helping them grow their skill sets to keep them both committed to the present while enabling them to feel [somewhat] secure about their [inevitable] next job search.
Hoffman says, “For individuals, it’s the trading lifetime employment for lifetime employability. The company should invest in you to keep you employable, by always offering more training and expanding responsibility, even if you never leave…” Employees, in exchange, “will work to keep the company adapting and valuable and growing over the long term.”
So there it is. The new devils’ bargain for these times. I believe the challenge for educators is to equip their students with both an understanding of this crazy alliance (and in one form or another, I think it holds true for all sectors and not only the private one) and provide them with adaptive skills and competencies so they can navigate the waves of the global workforce without sinking.
A Look Into “Future” of Higher Education [in U.S.]
In case you’re interested, I’ve been writing book review for the NAFSA magazine, International Educator, for the past twenty years. But I’ve not written about a good book on my blog – so here is the first I’m touting as a good read: College [UN]Bound by Jeffrey Selingo, editor-at-large for the Chronicle of Higher Education [a good blog to follow]. He writes very clearly and succinctly and without jargon. Further, I pretty much agree with all that he says and the way that he dissects the issues facing U.S. colleges and universities (so much for objectivity).
In his intro, he makes a statement which no politician or senior campus administrator would acknowledge as true: that we do not, on many levels, have the “best” system of higher ed in the world. As he says, if this were, in fact, true, how come we now rank 12th in the percentage of 25-34 year olds who have post secondary credentials among the 17 nations that comprise the OECD (as of 1995, we were #1).
In his chapter on “The Disruption,” he states that the decline began in 2008 at the time we entered our great recession. I recall then that there was commentary as to whether or not this huge event was “transformative” for our society or just another of the old-fashioned cyclical financial crises we go through in our capitalistic system…Clearly, on many scorecards, the recession has not been anything approaching a “normal” historical event.
And so we come to the issues he discusses and which I’ve tried to raise in my blog about increasing inequality of access to higher ed, to experiences such as studying abroad and to the expected positive impact of a college degree in terms of “employability”, among several others. On this last all important outcome, he says, “It is hard to exaggerate how big a role the value gap will play in the future of higher education. For decades, colleges have traded on the value of their degree in the employment markets and social circles to push up prices [i.e. tuition]. That financial strategy has come to a screeching halt (p. 72).”
He not only is a critic of higher education but has taken the time to visit dozens of colleges in order to talk with staff and students and see what goes on – in real time – for students. I like the innovative stories he shares about best practices in and out of the classroom at the end of the book.
Get this book and discuss it. Think about it. Tell a faculty colleague or administrator you know about it and maybe go over it in a book club or over drinks (better). And if you know a parent whose kid is in their Junior year of high school, tell them to read it as it might help them decide how to make good choices for their college bound son or daughter.
Univ of Minnesota Hosts Career Integration Conference
I’ve just returned from Minneapolis where I participated in , and spoke on the program, at the first-ever “career integration” conference in the U.S. You will find the program and speakers at http://www.umabroad.umn.edu/professionals/career-int/conference/sessions. There is an excellent list of open Resources on the topics covered at the conference on this page. A list which would add value on a campus career service or education abroad website (for students & staff).
We had about 200 professionals at the meeting – mostly from the mid-West and mid-Atlantic (along with my good friend, Jean-Marc Hachey, founder of “MyWorldAbroad,” at https://www.myworldabroad.com/ from Toronto). This is his new website containing all of the earlier resources found in his book, the “Big Guide to Living & Working Overseas.”
This meeting was important because of its singular focus on the topic of integrating (or as I’ve sometimes referred to it as “harmonizing”) both student career advising and study abroad advising. I’ve addressed this theme over the past decade, but, we now have momentum to raise the issue as part of the national conversation about the “worth” of college, the “return on investment” of the degree – or the longer-term value for career development & job searching of experiential learning via study/work/or service abroad – during the four-years of college.
While it seems logical and easy to simply assert that there is high value in going to college and learning abroad, every advisor knows this is no longer an easy decision for students to make (unless they are financially secure and can make such decisions without regard to whether or not there is added value to them in terms of post-graduation employment).
Increasingly, more and more campuses are seeing that as they both develop and implement “internationalization” policies, they also must provide the necessary staff resources to support students at all stages of their decision-making about leaving campus to widen their world views and explore international study/work or internships.
My recent publication, Campus Best Practices Supporting Education Abroad & Student Career Development http://www.aifsabroad.com/advisors/publications.asp discusses model campus efforts to integrate advising practices along with links to documents supporting such initiatives. You can find my earlier post about it in April…
Keep the dialogue going – write me at martyjtillman@gmail.com to share what you are doing on your campus!
Matching Student Expectations to Global Workforce
See my new blog posted to the global dialogue page for the European Association of International Education at: http://www.eaie.org/blog/students-global-workforce
As higher education has become a globalized industry, it should be easier to embrace more creative partnerships with businesses that must compete in a global economy. Finding the right points of intersection for students requires institutions to do a better job of assisting students to interpret and articulate the value of their international experiences to employers….
Show Me The Money –What You Gain If You Can Afford It
I could not help but smile when reading this story about the “add-on” career & personal travel experiences which are – for some- de rigeur in MBA programs: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/business/in-b-school-is-that-a-syllabus-or-an-itinerary.html. Just as I’m writing more about issues of equal access to college and the inequality of access to international education, this story comes along…Working in the career office at the elite Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, I conducted annual “career treks” to NYC to bring students in contact with alumni and introduce them to those working at selected NGOs and international organizations. Great for those who had the extra cash as no trips were subsidized in any way.
As the reporter states: “The trips usually aren’t free, often adding a shadow budget to an already expensive M.B.A. “I would say that $5,000 total for two years is a low to moderate budget, but is one that would still allow a student to experience significant social and academic travel opportunities,” says Mr. Shinewald [founder of mbaMission], whose firm works with M.B.A. applicants. At the high end, $20,000 to $30,000 for two years is not uncommon, he says.”
And the reporter goes on to say that companies are sometimes footing the bill for these extra-curricular networking opportunities (so much for any questions about the influence of the private sector in support of graduate business education).
Global Career Compass 