Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
Multinational Company Prepares Students for Global Careers
From a press release issued, it seems, jointly on the same day, Nov. 27: Cargill, working with the Institute of International Education (IIE), has launched a new scholarship program to help build future potential leaders. The Cargill Global Scholars program, http://www.cargillglobalscholars.com, will provide financial support, leadership development and enrichment opportunities to nearly 200 talented and high-performing undergraduate students in five countries. The selected individuals will be chosen based on their demonstrated high level of academic performance and leadership potential. Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. The company employs 142,000 people in 65 countries.
Scholars will be selected from Brazil, China, Russia, India and the United States, where Cargill has significant operations or interest. IIE will work with specific universities in each of these countries to identify the scholars. Targeted outreach will be conducted to reach under-represented groups in higher education in each country or region. Approximately 50 to 70 students from these five countries will be selected each year. The first group of nearly 60 students will be selected in May and June 2013 and will begin their three-year program of activities in June and July 2013. In total, nearly 200 Cargill Global Scholars will participate in this scholarship program over the next seven years.
What I especially like about this initiative is that students will participate in leadership training modules and paired with a Cargill employee, including company executives, who will serve as a mentor over the next several years. These mentors will help students identify and realize short and long-term academic and professional goals. The company is not just providing financial support, but, offering its human resources to stay engaged with students outside their course of study in their respective fields [students are not being trained to join Cargill’s workforce, but, to succeed in their own selected professional track].
A great case study of enlightened corporate social responsibility extending into the higher ed sector around the world. Kudos to IIE for joining hands with Cargill to put this program in place.
Preparing Elementary School Students for 21st Century Jobs
And you thought I was only paying attention to the higher education sector…This is the press release from Johns Hopkins: Supported by a five-year $7.4 million National Science Foundation grant, experts at The Johns Hopkins University are partnering with teachers and administrators in Baltimore City Public Schools on a program to enhance teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and math in city elementary schools by making STEM a community affair. The program, called STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools – SABES for short — not only will benefit more than 1,600 students in grades three through five in nine city elementary schools, but could also become a national model for science, technology, engineering and math education.
This project should make Tom Friedman of the NYT pay attention. Hope he reads my blog. I think it’s a fantastic collaboration pointing to the undeniable linkage of future employment to purposeful planning right as kids start their education. Even though there’s no way to imagine the kinds of jobs these kids will compete for 15-20 years from now, the preparation of teachers, educational training provided to teachers, and engagement with families –all point to a cadre of students who are bound to develop highly marketable skills and I’d imagine, also an openness to jobs which others might shy away from. We need education to prepare students to be excited, even fearless, about the jobs they see in the marketplace – not to feel hopelessly unprepared for the work society needs them to perform.
I can see those T-shirts saying: “STEM Is A Community Affair!”
India’s Challenge in Preparing Graduates for Job Market
Karin Fischer in this CHE article, http://chronicle.com/article/Job-Preparation-and/135584, discusses dialogue at recent Delhi higher education conference organized -interestingly enough- by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, on how “ready” Indian students are for entry into their job market. Having first studied in India as a grad student in 1975 and become familiar with their higher education system at that time, I find it sad to be reminded once again that the country has still not been able to address both the growth of their university system and the expansion of their economy – presumably coupled with an expansion of jobs in key sectors.
I’m actually not really surprised as India has always had to contend with its rigid post-colonial legacy in the education sector at all levels. Fischer comments on one corporate speaker who comments that their universities graduate students without “critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to succeed in today’s global marketplace.” True enough for the millions in the majority of India’s 33,000 higher ed institutions which represent -according to Philip Altbach of Boston College, “more than half of the world’s post-secondary institutions.” And at the same time, India is home to the some of the world’s best technical institutes and IT corporate giants – like Infosys which ( as I have cited in my recent chapter, “Employer Perspectives in International Education” in the SAGE Handbook of International Higher Education) also conducts a Global Internship Program attracting the best and brightest students from around the world.
India’s new junior minister for human-resource development, former UN under-secretary general and Tufts alumnus, Shashi Tharoor, is quoted here as saying that such programs and students are “islands in a sea of mediocrity.” I think it’s unfortunate for someone who has had the privilege and benefits of studying outside India and building a career away from the nation, should return to make such a statement. This is not a new crisis for India, but one which does require sustained political will to change the dynamics of how India educates its citizenry. Until this is tackled up and down the education system by politicians and educators – not just at the university level – India will never live up to its potential to prepare its graduates to fully contribute to one of the world’s greatest nation-states.
Linking Practical Training & University Studies
This piece in University World News, http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20121031170816593, highlights a report that the German Employers Federation (BDA) advocates for changes in teacher training.
The BDA, which demands an across-the-board implementation of bachelor and masters degrees, would like to see teacher training setting out from the demands of the career itself and closely linking subject knowledge with didactics and education science. Higher education ought to incorporate practical phases in which institutions would cooperate closely with schools.
In my recent workshop with Zimbabwean educators, I learned about the “attachment period” which is mandated for all third year university students. It is supposed to be an opportunity for students to develop workforce skills that would make them more employable post-graduation. Of course, in the highly developed German economy it makes sense to see how increased cooperation in specific fields such as teaching would be viewed as an important aspect of national policy —we talk in the U.S. about the need to increase the number of students being trained in the STEM fields, but, we have no rational way to create a national policy which would tie employment prospects to university coursework and certification…Can you imagine the AFL-CIO making a statement like the BDA?
Alignment of Higher Education and the Workplace in Asia
The Asian Development Bank reports on the nature of the changes in the workplace in the region and suggests ways in which the region’s academic institutions need to adapt: http://www.adb.org/publications/improving-transitions-school-university-workplace. This section reads like a prescription for U.S. higher education —
The Changing Workplace
Interesting times could be in store in countries like the PRC, Indonesia, and Thailand, where the percentage of higher education graduates in the workforce is now about one-fifth—double what it was 15–20 years ago. In the dynamic Asian region, demands of the workplace change quickly
and can result in changes in unemployment rates, rates of return, and workplace opportunities. The major qualitative changes in the workplace will be linked with the expanding need for innovation, ability to exploit niche industries, and capacity to operate in an increasingly multilingual
and cultural global milieu (Cheng 2007). Developed countries have learned hard lessons about the futility of relying upon human resources planning forecasts and over-specialization in higher education.
While economies still require some very specific types of human resources, dynamic economies also require high-level talent that is innovative, risk taking, adaptable, and responsive to changing environments. The modern workplace is flatter and less hierarchical than before and requires different skills sets than in the past. The implications are significant for higher education. Colleges and universities will have to radically change the way that instruction is delivered as well as expand offerings in continuing education for workers who need to readjust to rapidly changing labor markets. Employers will expect their employees to be more attuned to an increasingly competitive external environment, which will require good skills for teamwork, problem-solving ability, communication, and other so-called non-cognitive or “soft” skills [Research in the U.S. confirms these same skills are highly valued by employers].
Universities should appoint representatives of local business and industry to their career advisory boards, which already contain academics from different departments of the university. Forums on globalization, the knowledge economy, and graduate employment can create ideas for forging a closer alignment between universities and the workplace. This calls for modification of aspects of the traditional elite university models to find ways for higher learning both to maintain the essence of universities and also to exploit their advantage in providing students with a broad understanding and an entrepreneurial orientation that will improve their capacity to enter the labor market. The external efficiency of Asian higher education will increasingly come to depend upon the extent to which graduates can enter a workplace that is regional in scope, one in which knowledge and skills are not only relevant for domestic labor markets but transferable across borders and beyond the region. The recruitment and utilization of talent that drives economic change will be sourced not only by universities in their own countries but also by regional centers of higher learning.
A Solid Base for Making Sound [Career] Decisions
This is an excellent essay: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Solid-Base-for-Making-Sound/135220/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Adding more transparency and hard data into the mix which is available to students – and career advisors on their campuses will add much value to the development of more fact-based decision-making when it comes to creating realistic career plans for students. Regardless of major or field of interest, it is in every student’s – and family’s – self-interest to understand the consequences of their choices with respect to courses, internships, work-study or international experience during their college years.
There is an unfounded fear among some that there is too much focus of late on the linkage between academic study and employability. I’d say there is no fear among families struggling to pay their kids’ tuition in receiving more concrete information which will enable their child to successfully make the transition to work after graduation –or at least in reducing the time that their child is job hunting.
Career Planning at Zimbabwe’s Universities
I’ve just returned from conducting workshops in Harare as a U.S. State Department speaker specialist. The focus of my work was to introduce the concept of career planning and advising and to discuss how to develop a stand-alone career service office. You can listen to this podcast where I was interviewed by the Embassy’s Public Affairs Counselor about my work and observations http://harare.usembassy.gov/podcast.html
I met with teams from the country’s major public and private institutions. At this time, there are no trained career staff at any of the nation’s universities. Sometimes Deans of Students play a career advising role, sometimes faculty make themselves available; however, there is no systematic effort at any institution to prepare students to integrate their academic work with their career goals. But Zimbabwe’s higher education system does provide a very unique opportunity for students to gain substantial practical experience in the workplace –in their third year, all students are required to obtain an “attachment” with an employer which lasts the full year. The difficulty is that in their British structure, there are not a sufficient number of placements for students in the varied professional “faculties.” It appears students in the Faculty of Commerce have the easiest time although I left unclear as to how the process of identifying prospective placements takes place. In the absence of a career office to plan and implement this system, it appears to be a somewhat haphazard combination of faculty contacting people they know and/or of students themselves going out into their communities to ask if an employer would take them on.
Unemployment for graduates is extremely high and there is a lack of diversity of businesses apart from banking, mining and financial services companies to a more limited degree. The economy does not now provide a sufficient base of revenue to improve the poor infrastructure at universities nor does it adequately provide funds to fully staff their institutions. Those whom I met and worked with were exceptionally motivated to improve career planning for their students in whatever way they could. They understand how weakened the country is due to the exit – ongoing for many years – of the country’s best and brightest students (educated at elite private schools and usually then going on for their further education in South Africa, Europe or North America). They know there is a need to professionalize the student affairs function of career advising…but for the near term, they must make do with much less.
The following explanation about university attachment programs comes from a staff member at the Embassy in Harare:
Of the 10 universities, I think only 7 require ALL their students to have an internship. At the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) it’s mostly students from the Faculties of Commerce, Law, Rural & Urban Planning and Engineering I think who are required to do attachment. At the Women’s University in Africa, only students doing social sciences have an attachment component this applies to Great Zimbabwe University as well. Of the state universities, the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) degree from the onset had an attachment component to them. GZU, BUSE, CUT and MSU which were established after NUST followed suit. Catholic University, Solusi and Africa University (private) also started out with the attachment component built into all their degree programs. The UZ is incorporating this aspect in phases, thus only a few faculties have attachment. The trend is that more often than not, students usually get employment with organizations that they have interned with and this put students that don’t have attachment as a requirement at a disadvantage.
Catching Up to Jobs Headlines
A lot of news continues to focus on the linkage between skill development and employability. I’ll have more to say about this next month when I return from a State Department expert speaker program in Harare, Zimbabwe. I will be conducting workshops for university representatives on developing career development services for undergraduates. Such student affairs roles do not exist on campuses in Zimbabwe.
Consider these two in the Chronicle of Higher Ed: “U.S. Will Make Broader Global Skills for College Students a New Priority;” and “Real-Time Jobs Data Show Community Colleges What Employers Need Now.”
Ok. So better than never as far as the first piece which discussed the new strategic plan of the Department of Education to improve – on a broad scale- “global competencies of all American students, to learn educational best practices from other countries, and to be more active in ‘educational diplomacy,’ or diplomatic engagement through education-related work…” there was no explanation of just what would change nationally or how such activities would be funded or of course, how a top-down initiative like this would pass muster at the state level. But I do love the language. Did not know that the new Ed department’s director of international affairs came from the World Bank [which could explain the linguistic finesse in the interview].
The second article details an innovative way that several community colleges are using “real-time” labor market data to develop new curricula offerings which are tied to the availability of jobs in a particular field. Of course such a linkage between economic conditions and academic training would be fought vigorously at four year institutions. But more and more states and the federal government are turning to our two year colleges to reduce unemployment in local communities. And why not? The overwhelming number of minority students in higher education are enrolled st community colleges and older adults are returning in large numbers to re-tool their skills in order to find jobs in alternative vocational fields.
Employers often complain in surveys that they would hire more except that they cannot find talent to match the openings they seek to fill…Well, here is an ideal way to put that excuse to rest.
An International Educator in Vietnam
My colleague Mark Ashwill always writes thoughtful and sometimes thought-provoking posts. I encourage you to read through this to the end…
An International Educator in Vietnam
I recently received an email from a Vietnamese student (I’ll call her “Hoa”) who just earned her bachelor’s degree in the US. Hers is the story of many young Vietnamese who study overseas, which is why I want to share it with you. I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent. 🙂
Hoa writes:
I am a Communication (Advertising/PR) major and I want to pursue a career in the US. I would feel very lost if I have to go back to work in Vietnam. The majority of writing I did in my undergrad is in English; I don’t even have writing samples in Vietnamese. The social networks and media that I’ve got so used to here aren’t even popular in Vietnam.
Hoa is a graduate of one of Vietnam’s talented and gifted high schools, where she majored in English as a second language. Most of her classmates (about 18…
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DISCO Survey Report Has Different Finding Than Story in NYT!
My earlier post about a story this month in the New York Times seems somewhat contradicted by the findings in this survey sent to me by a Japanese colleague: http://www.disc.co.jp/en/resource/pdf/RecruitmentTrendsJapan.pdf
Increasingly, companies are seeking Japanese nationals with study abroad experience. In a recent DISCO survey o f 1174 companies, 23.7% of companies will be looking to hiring Japanese nationals studying overseas in their 2012 recruitment cycle, compared to 18.4% in the previous year.
Japanese students with study abroad experience are generally able to converse in English, and it is hoped they have also developed vital intercultural communication skills. Students willing to develop basic communication skills such as English, higher level skills such as intercultural effectiveness and further gain experiences in emerging markets that firms are entering will do well in overcoming any constriction in the labour market. Corporations throughout Japan understand that adaptation will be necessary to compete globally
The increase is not large but the trend appears to be positive when compared to the slowdown in the Japanese economy since 2008. Another interesting finding was that Japanese companies have a new interest in hiring international students studying in Japan. This new trend reflects the interest in expanding to new Asian markets such as China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The government has set a goal to double the number of international students studying in Japan from the current 150,000 to 300,000 by 2020. The growth of the international student market has taken awhile – when I went to Japan on my Fulbright in 1987, the government sought to increase the number to 100,000 by an unspecified date. So this policy goal will have stretched over a 30 year period.
Global Career Compass 