Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
Study Abroad: Students “Dialogue” on Impact in the Job Search
Fair to say that this Boston Globe student-led blog site conveys a mixed bag of just a few student commenters….I found it unfortunate to see how many comments were so far removed from the focus of the article itself: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/thenextgreatgeneration/2012/02/go_abroad_get_hired_corporate.html?comments=all#readerComm
For those looking to share a more serious framework with students to help them see the value-added of their international experience – if they choose to plan for it–see my AIFS Student Guide to Study Abroad And Career Development at http://www.aifsabroad.com/international_perspectives
Chinese Universities Struggle to Increase Ties to Employers
Perhaps this essay in the Chronicle should be titled “Chinese Universities Strive to Democratize Relations to the Marketplace”: http://chronicle.com/article/Chinas-Universities-Struggle/131610. Much as has happened in India and others in the “BRIC” family of nations, Chinese educators are trying to figure out how to transform their institutions to better prepare students for employment in their globalized economy. As the piece points out, it was only 40 years ago that professors were condemned toviously manual labor if they were suspected of harboring “capitalist sympathies.”
The scale of the Chinese problem with “employability is huge: “about 23% of the 6.5 million who graduated in 2011 are still out of work.” An earlier post discussed the new interest and support of career coaching professionals at Chinese universities –they have a daunting task ahead of them.
This article discusses the new dialogue taking place about the merits of government programs which encourage “universities to design new majors that focus on emerging industries like bioengineering and alternative energy.” This is seen as one way to create direct linkages between a university education and employment –an issue many nations are confronting since the global economic downturn in 2008. Apparently, most linkages with industry are “overly reliant on the efforts of individual professors.”
Lastly, it seems that where there are successful curricular partnerships with industry, they exist at so-called elite universities. Students at what are referred to as “midlevel” institutions have a much harder time finding employment as their institutions have few ties with industry. The article cites growing interest of administrators at “lower layers” of the higher education system in learning from American educators how to create more curricula flexibility and build ties to industry.
It may take decades for universities to close the employment gap of their graduates –this begs the question of how China will manage an annual unemployment rate of 77% of their college-age graduates in coming years.
Graduate Business Schools & Employability of International Students
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 strategy to assist international students – at both undergrad and grad levels -find employment. At Vanderbilt, one approach is to admit students who are a good “fit” for the job market [I assume this means in terms of prior work experience and skill sets]. Of course, at the undergrad level, admissions offices cannot be that selective…which begs the question of how a student is to evaluate whether or not their choice of an academic institution will measurably advance their career prospects. At MBA or business schools, in the STEM fields, this assessment process is certainly much easier.
India native Rajeev Samuel, 30, wanted to stay in the U.S. after his graduation from the Simon school [at U. of Rochester], preferably near his wife, who is based in Chicago. At one U.S. company, Mr. Samuel made it to a final-round interview only to have the company ask if he would relocate to India or China for the job. “I’m paying for a U.S. school in U.S. dollars, and I don’t think I can pay it back using an Indian salary,” he says.
Career offices at business schools cited here are making extraordinary efforts to build new partnerships with international companies to advance employment prospects of their international students. My own experience is that placing the burden for success in the job market solely on the career office’s outreach is shortsighted. The entire institution needs to develop an integrated strategy for such outreach and partnership development as part of its internationalization plan.
On Internationalization of Latin American Universities: Students… “will find a way home”
The Chronicle reports on the recent Congress of the Americas and the debate on the opportunities and challenges of interest from North American institutions in partnering with Latin American universities http://chronicle.com/article/In-Brazil-a-Conference-on/131721. Interest from both Canadian and American university representatives was high- especially with Brazil in light of its emergence as a global economic power. The essay was interesting in noting concerns about “the increasingly commercial focus of internationalization.” Somehow I doubt this was a concern shared by North American educators looking for added revenue from a new wave of international students (i.e: it was reported that Canada’s delegation signed 35 new partner agreements with 18 Brazilian institutions.
Trying to allay fears that a new era of “brain drain” was on the horizon, the EAIE president, Gudron Paulsdottir stated: “People will find a way home. And when they study, they will build knowledge and build networks.” The Canadians want to increase the number of Brazilians studying North from 500 to 12,000 – a huge shift of brainpower and labor market talent out of the country…How long before they return home?
Networking for a Job in Indian IT Sector
This post from the Harvard Business Review is a mini-story of one engineers’ pursuit of his first job and how it influenced his approach to finding employment a decade later…http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/share_your_own_job_search_story.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
Globalization and the spread of technology has fostered a set of common attributes to job searches around the world.
What Being Global Really Means-A Leadership Perspective
Interesting statement from Ángel Cabrera,president of Thunderbird School of Global Management, and president-elect of George Mason University. I heard him speak in a small seminar room st SAIS shortly after his appointment to Thunderbird and was very impressed with his perspective.
… Truly global leaders act as bridge builders, connectors of resources and talent across cultural and political boundaries — relentlessly dedicated to finding new ways of creating value. They don’t just think and act global, they are global.
Creating a Global Professional- A Guest Blog
The lessons learned from volunteering for organizations within the vicinity of one’s home can be an enriching experience for teens, but volunteering abroad can expand a student’s understanding of the world in ways that are more difficult to achieve through learning materials alone.
Getting teens involved in summer volunteer programs for high school students is one of the most effective ways to expose youths to a world bigger than their own backyard. Raising awareness of other cultures and the tremendous need that exists in many third-world countries can animate students to make a bigger difference in the lives of people all over the world in their future professions.
Why Should Teens Study and Volunteer Abroad?
Aside from filling in an extra line on their college applications, are there any substantial reasons why students should spend their summers abroad? Volunteering or studying abroad will not only teach students about the world around them, but about the incredible things they are capable of as well. Many students are unaware of the effect their actions can have on the world simply because many of them have never seen their own impact on a larger scale. By teaching children in Nicaragua, building houses in Morocco and cleaning up devastated regions in Haiti, students can see for themselves how their efforts can have a dramatic impact on the lives of others.
Volunteering in a foreign country can give students a sense of purpose that can be difficult to achieve by simply visiting other countries as a guest. Students who volunteer abroad go with a mission, thus avoiding wasting time and gaining something of value from the experience.
A Brighter Future with Internationally-Minded Professionals
At an age where many students are still trying to find themselves and determine what they want to do with the rest of their lives, a sense of direction and development of passions can be acquired through volunteer abroad programs. According to Elaine Andres, a Volunteer Abroad Team Member at Go Overseas, volunteering abroad can keep students focused during their time in college and prevent the likelihood of multiple major changes.
The new understanding of personal potential gained from volunteering abroad can be used to shape the future careers of students by giving them a unique confidence in their professional capabilities. The issues that affect various industries within the U.S. — either within the economy, environment, or education system– can often be resolved with the help of other countries across the globe. Building stronger relationships with the people in other countries will profoundly benefit each party involved.
The impressionability of young students can be a dangerous thing when placed in an unstructured environment, but this quality can also facilitate more passionate and socially-aware future leaders when placed in character-building environments like volunteer abroad programs. By encouraging youth participation in these life-enriching programs, the benefits gained by young people will be magnified exponentially by the benefits the nation will gain in the not-so-distant future.
Zach Buckley is a freelance writer who is interested in exploring the intersection of culture, science and leadership. He lives in the Midwest and enjoys music, literature and good food.
IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION ON STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT
See the agenda and presentations at the conference of the International Management Institute at American University. I was a presenter: http://www.american.edu/sis/imi/conference/Tillman.cfm
Presenter(s): Senem Bakar, Associate Director of Exchange Visitors & Student Services, American University, David Fletcher, Career Advisor, Career Center, American University; Martin Tillman, President, Global Career Compass (GCC)
Globalization of the workforce, increased mobility of students, rising demand from employers for “global ready” graduates, are but a few of the new forces of change impacting the traditional structure of international educational experiences offered to students. These forces are found to influence the focus of higher education policy and planning with respect to campus internationalization and in particular, the development of partnerships with business and industry to widen opportunities for experiential learning and practical work experience. While efforts to internationalize campuses has risen dramatically in recent years, there remains a need for more purposeful and structured inter- cultural experience to provide students with the skills and competencies employers are looking for to build their global workforce, whether those experiences are in local communities or in other countries. This session will focus on strategies to enable students to understand how their education abroad experience will fit into their career “toolkit” when they are developing a job search strategy -and marketing their international experiences to employers.
Moral Challenge to International Educators
See the new report by the International Association of Universities, Affirming Academic Values in Internationalization of Higher Education: A Call for Action
I am concerned about the “asymmetry” of access to international experience which the IAU report gently labels an “adverse consequence” of globalization.
There is much research supporting, for example, the advantages which accrue to those students able to participate in an international work, study or internship program. I’ve written extensively about this advantage in terms of how employers value skills and competencies among the minority of American students who do access such experiences. Certainly the opportunities for students from other than developed nations to gain a real strategic advantage in the global job market is quite limited. So what we face is a growing inequality of access built into the higher education system – both here and in other societies- for students without the economic resources to join the global job market and realize the benefits of membership in a globalized economy. The academic discussion of “brain circulation” and student mobility – when examined through the prism of economic equality – surely highlights a new moral challenge facing international educators.
Risks of Globalization for International Education Community-Spying by Foreign Government Agents
This story has just been sent around by a NAFSA colleague: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-08/american-universities-infected-by-foreign-spies-detected-by-fbi.html. I recall the days when the National Student Association was, in fact, tied to the CIA, and yet this is a serious matter in the current geo-political atmosphere.
As a junior at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, Glenn Duffie Shriver studied at East China Normal University in Shanghai. After graduation, he fell in with Chinese agents, who paid him more than $70,000. At their request, he returned to the U.S. and applied for jobs in the State Department and the CIA. He was sentenced to four years in prison in January 2011 after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide national-defense information to intelligence officers of the People’s Republic of China.
And on the other hand, the story also highlights the need for caution by institutions seeking to expand their global reach by establishing branch campuses and hiring host-country faculty and/or seeking funding from wealthy foreign investors:
Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon contacted the Central Intelligence Agency in late 2009 with an urgent question. The school’s campus in Dubai needed a bailout and an unlikely savior had stepped forward: a Dubai-based company that offered to provide money and students. Simon was tempted. She also worried that the company, which had investors from Iran and wanted to recruit students from there, might be a front for the Iranian government, she said. If so, an agreement could violate federal trade sanctions and invite enemy spies. The CIA couldn’t confirm that the company wasn’t an arm of Iran’s government. Simon rejected the offer and shut down undergraduate programs in Dubai, at a loss of $3.7 million.
Global Career Compass 