Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
News Flash: New Economy Will Not Embrace Entitlement
The title of this post is a paraphrase of a quote by Phil Gardner, director of the Michigan State Collegiate Employment Research Institute, in a piece in the Nov. 20 Chronicle of Higher Education by Justin Doubleday (only viewable by subscribers).
All of us know the national job market is better than it was a few years ago and that the rate of unemployment has come down (although we still have too many people unemployed). And we also know that the most highly educated in American society are least unemployed (although they may believe they are underemployed which is another story). What got my attention was Gardner’s quote and his use of the word, entitlement. He uses it in the context of what employers tell him –that they are searching for talent among college graduates who can “prove that their education will translate into real-world skills.”
Is this a shocking revelation from the subterranean real-world of commerce in America ? Of course not – it’s a message which goes along with changes in the marketplace in the past decade. And it unfortunately is driving questions about the vocationalization of higher education. I’ve written extensively about the need to develop a linkage for students between their international experience and their career development. And I’ve discussed the importance of campuses building bridges between study abroad advising and the advising taking place in career service offices. This is not happening on many campuses and therefore students return home unable to clearly articulate to employers how their overseas experiences have strengthened and widened their skills and competencies.
In broader terms, I think this article is a challenge to the academic community -especially to career service offices – to find a more compelling rationale for how students translate their four years of study in their senior year when they begin job hunting and in their post-graduate job searches. Absent such a rationale, employers may see the act of going to college as not offering bragging rights to anyone. I think PhDs have known this for a long time and now the bad news has trickled down to undergrads…
“European Dream” Is out of Reach for Current Generation
We’ve all been aware of the un and under-employment of recent college grads in Spain and Greece whose unemployment rates for people ages 15-24 is staggering at 55% and 58%. But what about the impact of the economic crisis in Europe upon the personal dreams and aspirations of college-age youth and recent graduates? This story in the NY Times paints a very bleak and sad picture: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/world/europe/youth-unemployement-in-europe.html?_r=0.
“Dozens of interviews with young people around the Continent reveal a creeping realization that the European dream their parents enjoyed is out of reach. It is not that Europe will never recover, but that the era of recession and austerity has persisted for so long that new growth, when it comes, will be enjoyed by the next generation, leaving this one out.”
The major shift in the workforce which is discussed has to do with employers moving away from hiring on a full-time basis to one where most prefer short-term contracts. This leaves little room for grads to pursue their careers within a company when the only work available pushes them into a cycle of short-term and low paying jobs without any prospect for advancement. Employers [with perhaps the exception being those based in Germany or Austria whose unemployment rates for those between 15-24 are only at 8% and 9%, respectively] cannot afford to hire full-time employees for fear of absorbing Europe’s generous labor benefit packages.
The article also illustrates the tremendous pain which grads suffer as they are forced to move away from their homes and families to seek employment in another country. Although there is much written about greater workforce “mobility” among youths in Europe, the reality of the forced migration of young and well educated talent seeking job offers – for low wages – has disrupted the lives of thousands of youths and their families. The story states that Spain has lost something like 100,000 university graduates and hundreds of thousands have moved to Germany, Britain and the Nordic states looking for work in engineering, science and medicine.
This chaos and disruption in the lives of so many young adults throughout Europe has untold consequences. Perhaps it will mean the delayed pursuit of careers and the resulting loss in wages along with a lack of skilled labor in important professional roles for many years to come.
We need to pay attention to what is happening to this current generation of students in Europe. The impact will be felt in our own society and global businesses.
Opening the Door Wider is Not Enough
As an alumnus of World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute , I was pleased to read this story in the Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/11/12/opening-doors-international-education/0HWb8zqtFuihyqlWupOp3K/story.html. A lot of the data the authors [senior administrators at SIT] cite will be familiar to professionals, although appearing in a mainstream media outlet, they needed to explain their point of view for a more general audience: that American students need to diversify their study abroad destinations to include more of the developing world. Something international educators have been trying to do for decades…
What I find troubling in the story is when they say, “As our students prepare for careers in our globalized economy, they need a more nuanced understanding of the world…” And “A deeper appreciation of these places [countries in the developing world] may well give students the experience and insights they will need for international and professional collaboration in the future.” Maybe.
Opening the door wider and having more undergrads walk through is a goal all international educators support. But it is not enough.
What is really needed is more money and staff on campus supporting deeper and more integrated approaches to advising students at the time they make their decision to study abroad (thus more engagement of the career office advising staff) along with purposeful methods of engaging students while they’re in-country and upon return to campus. I’ve written here about this before and in research for a forthcoming publication, I’ve identified many campuses that do just this –however, I think most campuses are understaffed to offer students the quality of advising which would realize the goals cited above my colleagues at SIT.
Adapting and making sense of a cross-cultural experience of any kind in a highly complex non-western culture is difficult and takes time; and it demands a more sophisticated effort by campuses to both prepare students for such an experience and to help them make meaning of their experience upon return to campus. Especially if one of the goals is to have students apply what they learned abroad in their job searches in order for their international experience to showcase their skills and capabilities in the workforce.
Peace Corps vs. VISTA
Only folks of a certain age will know that VISTA stands for: Volunteers in Service to America. Service in poor communities in the U.S., on reservations, in Appalachian towns, in rural Alaskan villages — was never as popular or sexy as service overseas. Now that we’re commemorating the 50th anniversary – which somehow seems like the wrong term to apply – of JFK’s assassination, I was thinking of the moment of choice for undergrads back in the day…
The reason I was dwelling on these two avenues for service has to do with the Open Doors stats just released showing that over 90% of U.S. undergrads never leave the U.S. at any point in their four years of study. And then I was thinking, so what. Instead of trying to push and push and innovate in all ways to increase the percentage who go abroad, why not work with the reality that most students remain in their home campus communities – and provide the means for them to develop their intercultural skills and competencies with in our borders. It’s cheaper. It’s less risky (for those families who would rather not have their children travel abroad). It’s just as important.
This quote is from the President of IIE upon release this week of their annual Open Doors report: “Commenting on the fact that 90 percent of American undergraduates still do not study abroad, Dr. Goodman said, “We need to increase substantially the number of U.S. students who go abroad so that they too can gain the international experience which is so vital to career success and deepening mutual understanding.” Yes, but this lament occurs annually when the report from IIE is published. The movement of students to study abroad has increased at a glacial pace over the decades.
We have so many unmet needs in our nation’s poorest communities…there are innumerable opportunities for students to serve and learn at home.
Closing the gap between employer & student perceptions
I usually don’t find USA Today a resource for my blog, but this story makes sense: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/31/more-than-a-college-degree/3324303/?sf19224859=1
…For Amy Homkes-Hayes, coordinator for the Career Center at the University of Michigan, bridging the gap between employer and student perceptions requires all parties to come together to help the student in the rapidly changing career market.” I don’t think there is one single ‘best’ way to bridge the gap,” she says. “Rather, I would argue employers, career centers and academic units need to collaborate in multiple ways to prepare students for an increasingly complex working world.”
Absolutely true and there are too few models in our higher education system where this integration of campus resources is taking place and is fully supported on both the student affairs and academic side of the administration.
In particular, there needs to be more in-service/in-house cross-training so that staff with international experience – as in the international office- are brought together with the career service team to share their experience with students returning from study-work-service or internships abroad. And let the career team share their experience working directly with employers looking for talent with specific kinds of experience and competencies which students do have if they’ve been abroad [but may not know how to showcase it on their resumes or articulate during their job interviews].
Each office brings unique and important perspectives from their work on campus – and there needs to be a purposeful effort to harmonize their professional expertise to benefit students and also engage & inform faculty about the impact of international experience on student career development.
UC-Berkeley “augments” its study abroad model
This is an interesting news item from the campus paper of record: http://www.dailycal.org/2013/11/08/uc-berkeley-augment-study-abroad-model/
“Most of our graduates are going to be operating in a world in which they will have to interrelate with people who are not working in the United States,” Breslauer [Executive Vice Chancellor] said. “Our research has to be into global problems and has to focus on collaboration.” Hard to quibble with this statement at this point in the 21st century.
But I’m convinced that campuses with elaborate and well-funded inter-institutional partnerships with overseas universities are missing or ignoring – or both – the point of efforts like this to expand their internationalization policies and practices.
My current research for a new publication on campuses best practices regarding integrating both study abroad and career advising paints a picture of overworked and understaffed offices tasked with a myriad of complex tasks in managing study abroad programs. There needs to be a deeper evaluation of how models like this one from Berkeley and the other campuses cited, effectively equip students to evaluate the impact of their international experiences – both in the classroom and in terms of their career aspirations and job searches.
It’s not only about opening the door wider to international experiences, but it’s also about what happens to students after they walk through…
Building Employment Opportunities The Old Fashioned Way
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 own hands is a must.
As U.S. university career offices themselves seek to re-brand their mission – away from the old school here’s how to write a resume/cover letter model – to a more creative entrepreneurial skill-building model where active partnerships engage students with employers and vice versa, this idea of students taking the bull by its horns and going after experiences to build the skills they lack , is definitely the way to go.
My mantra has been to increase attention on the linkage of education abroad with student career development –and this requires a full-court press by campus advisors, faculty and administrators. And let’s not leave out the majority of students who do not leave with any international experience after four years. We can offer them numerous ways to bridge skill gaps through intercultural off-campus experiences in their home community or elsewhere in the country.
Campuses need to focus down on the needs of their students to leave campus with both the intellectual and practical skills they need to enter the workforce. Not good enough to have an internationalization policy on paper if it does not result in innovative new practices to support students after they graduate to find meaningful employment at home or abroad.
October 2013 – New Resources
Resources for Campus Internationalization
We hope that the fall semester has been progressing nicely at your institutions. As we approach International Education Week in mid-November, we invite you to utilize our resources to think about and advance your institution’s internationalization strategy.
This month, several contributors added new resources.
AIEA has added a link to the organization’s archived summaries of listserv responses to critical questions in the field. The most recent addition includes samples of student placement agreements for international internships. Other topics include international office structures, faculty Fulbrights, and the impact of internationalization. This resource can be found in the Institutional Structures resource section as a web resource. They have also added an archived webinar recording titled, The Internationalized Campus, that looks at supporting international students’ academic success and persistence. This can be located as a web resource in the Comprehensive Internationalization resource section.
NAFSA has added two new publications. The first is Leveraging Accreditation…
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New Guide to Assist Students Understand Career Impact of Studying Abroad
Taken from a NAFSA webinar, Helping Students Translate ‘Study Abroad’ for the Job Search, in Spring 2013, which had close to 1,000 participants; go to http://www.nafsa.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=42998 for a free download.
There were three of us who teamed up to create this Guide and conduct the webinar: I worked with Vera Chapman at Colgate (in career services) and Curtiss Stevens (in study abroad) at the University of Texas at Austin. We crafted an integrated approach which may serve as a useful template for campus practitioners.
This is a model plan to help students consider the career implications of their decision to study abroad. If you use a different one on your campus, please share it with me at martyjtillman@gmail.com
Youth Unemployment – A Global Crisis
Reading this blog post on World Bank site, http://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/we-need-youth-jobs-revolution, I was struck that the problem, the actors involved, and the solutions – all were as applicable to the youth unemployment problem in the United States as in the developing world (the ostensible aim of the dialogue held at the Bank during their meetings in DC earlier this month).
“The Bank-sponsored session demonstrated a consensus around the need to promote market-based solutions so young people gain the life and employability skills that match the demands of the local economy. Panelists also underscored the need to teach young people the skills to create and build their own businesses. However, according to Jill Huntley, global managing director for corporate citizenship at Accenture, emerging entrepreneurs need more than access to capital. “We need to create an ‘ecosystem’ of support for them to succeed,” she said. “
I like the notion of creating an ecosystem of support – strikes me that at all levels of our own educational system, this is exactly what is needed. No question that at the tertiary levels, campus career service offices are now more actively seeking partnerships with employers as they prepare students to enter the workforce. Of course, as I learned a year ago when I was delivering workshops to university Deans of Students in Zimbabwe, not all educational systems have career service offices because there is no student affairs profession to prepare individuals to deliver advising services.
Our problem is that while we have a rich and diverse educational system, access to best practices, at all levels of learning, is shamefully unequal in our society.
Global Career Compass 