Global Career Compass
Leveraging Education Abroad for Student Career Development & Employability
My latest book chapter on education abroad and employability
Coming out in July!! https://lnkd.in/dDuR2eN. My chapter in Education Abroad: Bridging Scholarship and Practice, is with co-authors, C. Matherly & J. Wiers-Janssen on “Employability: How education abroad impacts transition to employment.”
This is the latest in a series of chapters I’ve authored since 2012 on this topic. My interest in examining the employability advantages to students from their participation in education abroad programs dates back to the early 2000s. You will find a large selective bibliography -including all of my writing and that of varied authors from around the world – on my LinkedIn profile page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martintillman/
When I first began to address the linkage between education abroad and student career development, including its tie-in with employability, I was largely viewing the topic from a uniquely American lens. In the early 2000s, I found few others in the U.S., in the international education field, examining this issue. Much of the research studies I found were, in fact, based on small samples of students, often from one academic institution -or from a selected population of alumni or recent participants, in a study abroad program sponsored by a private provider organization. Responses were most often self-reported by students. This new chapter adds a much broader, and may I say, nuanced, international perspective on the value of education abroad to a students’ future employability.
I’ve created a body of analysis in my writing where I advocated a two-tiered approach: First, for a more purposeful effort by campus study abroad and career offices to integrate their advising of students. That is, to point out the strategic, along with the personal and existential, advantages from education abroad. Secondly, the importance of engaging senior administrators and faculty in supporting the first point! As campuses now struggle to find their way through the perilous impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak, students are going to need every bit of advice, encouragement, mentoring and thoughtful perspective about their future plans. The disruption of this time is profound. What are the creative approaches to increasing co-curricular projects to internationalize at home?
There will be a sharp decline in the availability of overseas options for education abroad – highly likely for six months to a year- and we will need to fuel unmet student demand to build their cross-cultural skills and other interpersonal competencies, highly valued by employers, with experiences at home.
I think we are going to be re-defining the meaning of employability as a direct result of the pandemic.
Why should international education be an integral part of all undergraduate education?
The following text is from an address I delivered earlier this month (October, 2019) to a group of retired adults convening as part of the OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Oregon.
Why do families send their children to college?
What expectations do parents have regarding the outcome of their child obtaining a college degree?
…what was your expectation for going to college and what did you hope the degree would do for your career or job prospects?
I’m going to address the question, why international education should be an integral part of undergraduate education in the US? To do so means we have to also acknowledge the changes in our economy, in our societal values, in our families, in the demographics of our nation, and in the diversity of our campus population.
At the turn of the last century, in the 1920s, the University Delaware started the first junior year abroad program; in 1948, Sweet Briar College took over the program. It was only after WWII, in the 1940s, that the US began the Fulbright scholarship program. There were a few nonprofit exchange programs that had begun earlier in the 3os, especially the Experiment in International Living which offered students, for the first time, family homestays in Europe.
The history of international education is that of a unique co-curricular program available primarily to privileged white and female students. Participation reflected the population of students on our campuses up until the 1960s. In fact, for much of the last century, most campuses did not have international education programs.
In the last 20 years, one of the drivers that has pushed campuses to rapidly open up international education opportunities is the globalization of the workforce in our nation and around the world. Along with technological innovations in communications, the type of experiences which students require to be competitive in the job market after graduation has transformed the approach of campuses to off-campus international experience.
We know that studying abroad, and international internships, in particular, have the potential – if properly structured- to contribute to a students’ employability after graduation… sooner and with higher salaries than for students without such experience. We know the types of skills which employers [not only in business but in all occupations] value in hiring new talent —-and research has showed that many hiring managers are aware of the benefits of international education. And we also know there is a strong correlation, in many surveys and studies, between international education and employability.
However, here’s the problem: in any given year, upwards of 20 million students are enrolled in over 4,000 colleges and universities in our 50 states and territories. But, less than 400,000 graduate with any type of international education experience! The usual stat is that about 10% of undergrads who do graduate [and remember that only about 60% do so in 4 years] have such experience…
Students need to be disabused early upon their arrival freshman year, that they can glide through choosing courses, majors and selection of off-campus experiential learning – domestic or international- without considering how to build an effective action plan integrating all aspects of their classroom and off-campus learning experiences, to purposefully support their employability after graduation.
Participation in study abroad, an internship or a service-learning program abroad, in and of itself, is not sufficient –it’s the campus’ responsibility to provide students with the tools and preparatory work which helps them to make meaning of their experience and to place their experience in perspective with regards to their academic goals and career aspirations.
Merely addressing the question of increasing numbers going abroad, without insuring that there are adequate advising staff, well trained and with international experience themselves, will minimize the impact of a campus’ efforts to “internationalize” the campus curriculum .
I think the value-added, and contribution to the return on investment which families are concerned about, of international education is diminished if students cannot clearly articulate the way in which their international experience has strengthened specific intercultural competencies and soft skills of interest to prospective employers.
Globalization of the workforce, increased student mobility, rising demand by employers for “global-ready” graduates are but a few of the forces forcing change in the traditional structure of international education today. The momentum of these forces will continue to influence higher education policy and planning , in particular, the development of dynamic partnerships with businesses and industry to widen opportunities for students to obtain experiential learning and applied practical work experience for decades to come.
At a time when the nation is mired in political discord, when we are being pulled apart from each other on so many socio-economic & political issues – we need our campuses to support both domestic and international experiences which create opportunities for students to learn from each other, and from immersion in and exposure to unfamiliar communities in the US and abroad. This is why international education is more important now than ever for undergrads on all our campuses – 2 and 4 year, urban & rural, research & liberal arts.
The Service-Learning History Project-New Archive Opens at Stanford University
In 1995, Tim Stanton, Nadinne Cruz and Dwight Giles, concerned about the lack of understanding of the historical and philosophical roots of the rapidly growing field of service-learning, organized a gathering of “Pioneers” in the field (I was proud to be invited to attend this event). Sponsored by Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service thirty-three people from across the country, who were early adapters of service-learning pedagogy, came together at the Wingspread Conference Center to share their stories about how they came to be in the field. At The Wingspread Meeting 1995, they discussed their roots, their aspirations, their concerns and the challenges they faced. These narratives were captured in the book, “Service-Learning: A Movement’s Pioneers Reflect on its Origins, Practice and Future,” (Jossey-Bass, 1999), which is the only comprehensive account of the early days of this field, is widely cited in current literature, and was recently re-published in China in Mandarin. Documentation and findings from both this meeting and the book provided a foundation for what became known as the Service-Learning History Project.
In 2017, a steering committee made up of pioneers, younger field leaders, and representatives of Campus Compact, an organization which has helped service-learning grow and flourish for thirty years, organized a new gathering which brought together not only early pioneers, who continue to work in the field, but also younger practitioners, researchers and advocates of service-learning in higher education in the US and internationally. The purpose of The Gathering 2017 was to engage in critical, cross-generational review and reflection: to identify and address the field’s current challenges; to explore successful strategies and those that may be limited; and once again to revisit the roots of the practice to deepen understanding of how incorporating community service into the life blood of academic institutions improves instruction, empowers communities and enhances the civic life and skills of young people.
This archive contains audio and video recordings from these two meetings documenting service-learning practitioners’ reflection on their practice and the state of the field. The recordings include plenary sessions, small group discussions, and individual interviews. They explore the field’s emergence and ongoing institutionalization from its beginnings in the 1960s to the current time. The archive also contains other items (documents, videos, etc.) collected over the years that further shed light on the emergence and institutionalization of service-learning in higher education. Efforts to extend and expand the archive are ongoing. The curators welcome additional historical contributions at any time.
New Book Chapter: “Linking learning abroad and employability”
Dr. Cheryl Matherly , Vice President & Vice Provost for International Affairs at Lehigh University, and I have co-authored a chapter in the just published volume on Internationalization and Employability by Routledge. Our chapter is on ” Linking Learning Abroad and Employability.” Cheryl and I have frequently published and presented on this topic over the past decade.
The chapter contains a summary of current research on the topic and an analysis of international trends.
https://www.routledge.com/Internationalization-and-Employability-in-Higher-Education-1st-Edition/Coelen-Gribble/p/book/9780815368342 In the first section of the book, we “set the scene by providing an overview of national policy on learning abroad and the growing trend to purposefully link learning abroad programs to employability outcomes.”
We state: “Employability is a widely expected outcome for higher education, and increasingly, learning abroad programs are evaluated by how well they prepare students for success in entering the workforce.” We emphasize that given the widely accepted view about the value-added that international experience brings to a students’ career portfolio during their college years, it’s more imperative than ever for campuses to diversify participation in all international educational programs. This has been and will continue to be a major challenge for all campuses with commitments to internationalization of their institution’s curriculum and co-curricular activities.
Lisle International Global Seed Fund
This posting is a departure as it does not relate to any of my usual “categories.” However, it does relate to a 40-year commitment to the work of an American nonprofit called Lisle International [aka The Lisle Fellowship at its founding in 1936]…Lisle was a pioneering organization in creating a purposeful and intentional intercultural program bringing American and international college-age students together for six [6!] weeks during the summer. After my graduation from the SIT Graduate Institute in 1975, I worked for Lisle leading and organizing these programs around the world from 1977-1983. I’ve served on its Board of Directors for several decades.
I’m using my blog to announce that applications are open for modest funding from our Global Seed Fund at https://lnkd.in/epURpGZ. Full details on grant criteria are found here.
Lisle funds small-scale educational projects that promote intercultural understanding and bring people of diverse backgrounds together to share and learn from one another. I’m sure my readers might be working with and knowledgeable of the kind of interactive, small-scale, intercultural education projects -based anywhere in the world-which the Seed Fund hopes to support. Grants are up to $3,000. NOTE: The Request to Apply deadline has been extended to August 1, 2019.
Spread the word!
Purdue’s President Tauts a Selective Yale Academic Program as Means to…Break the Elitist Bubble for Students
When I read this opinion column of President Mitch Daniels in the Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-to-study-abroad-check-out-america/2019/03/11/8c5268a2-3492-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.78a22aaf179a, I was lost in a swirl of confusing thoughts. Could he really be citing a program (https://grandstrategy.yale.edu) which provided a two-month summer sojourn across America as an alternative model for enlarging the awareness of Yale students who otherwise were unable to (or chose not to) study abroad? If these students could afford to take off for a summer, surely, these same students would have the means to study abroad. I did not understand how this highly prized curricular program would break through the privilege undergirding unequal access to education abroad at Yale (or at any other institution).
So I wrote my letter –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/more-students-should-have-the-opportunity-to-study-abroad/2019/03/15/6c95c630-466c-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html?utm_term=.971cfaaa5937 – and it was placed, in the print edition, on the Editorial page, on March 17, 2019, under the heading, “Taking Exception.” Which I do.
Resources Supporting Student Integration of Education Abroad Experience With Career Planning
First-time readers may not have seen this post and I hope will find the information useful. I’d amend the list to include “Career Integration Resources,” on the pages of the Learning Abroad Center, University of Minnesota: https://umnabroad.umn.edu. This list has been compiled from participants in three Career Integration conferences sponsored by the Center & CAPA in 2014, 2016, and 2018.
Since I began writing and speaking on this topic about thirteen years ago, there has been an uptick in research – both academic and by large companies – and by several large private study abroad organizatons, to examine and reflect upon the importance of not merely viewing international experience as of intrinsic value to students. That there could also be extrinsic value attached to study-internships-or service abroad that advanced a students’ employability.
These selected resources are important because they directly address how campuses and organizations can assist students to “see” the value-added benefits of their decision to go abroad.
We know that employers don’t view education abroad, by itself, as providing a graduate with some inherent advantage -they want and even insist, that students tell a meaningful story describing how their international experience has taught them how to be more culturally agile, more empathic, more linguistically competent (and confident), among…
View original post 392 more words
Unmet Challenges of Diversifying Participation in Education Abroad
A new report by the nonprofit, Diversity Abroad, www.diversityabroad.com, “Collaborative Leadership: Advancing Diversity, Equity and Comprehensive Internationalization in [U.S.] Higher Education,” outlines the critical connection between an institution’s overall effort to provide equal access to its educational resources as well as equal acccess to international experience. It states:
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key components of strategic planning in higher
education and provide an opportunity to combine the inclusion initiatives that are
rooted in the civil rights era with campus internationalization efforts of the more recent
period.
It goes on to say that, Access for all students to international education remains unmet. Diverse and underrepresented groups in higher education such as students of color, students with disabilities, and those of lower socioeconomic status remain stagnant in education abroad programming.
The report substantiates what we know has been true for many decades with regard to the vast gap between white students and all others on our campuses when we look at the facts pertaining to participation in study abroad. The report, however, stresses that there is now greater visibility to this gap due to the hiring of staff to manage diversity in both hiring practices and with respect to recruitment of, and marketing to, diverse student audiences.
I think the importance of continuing to shine a bright light on this gap in access to all international education experiences will only grow in significance in coming decades. The best way to diversify participation in education abroad is to have a deep pool of diverse students to enage with and market the linkage of international experience to employability.
Campuses Playing the “Long Game” – or Redefining the Importance of Student Employability
I shouldn’t be surprised that opening up yesterday’s Sunday New York Times Learning section, I’d find a story titled, “Playing the Long Game” – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/education/learning/colleges-universities-career-services.html – about how “more” [how many was not part of this story] campuses are “finding ways to connect students with career services early on. A trend is a trend if it appears in The Times!
The piece was largely focused on the new and incredibly expensive – at $16.4 million – Center for Career Services at Colgate University in central N.Y. (full disclosure, I’m a grad school alumnus from the ‘Gate, but, back when that sum might have been the budget for the entire university!). I had heard about this new building and glad to see this gem of a structure featured. Especially when the piece focused down on the evolving national trend that finds more institutions re-thinking how they brand their career service offices and indeed, how they integrate career development within the overall mission of their academic program.
I liked a quote from the director of content strategy at NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers, which is the professional body for career service professionals in the nation). She says: “Students are not there [at college] to get a job. Their focus is their studies and frankly,their personal life. There’s a lot of noise competing for their attention. But it’s probably the only time in their life they are going to have access to that level of professional service, collected for them for free.” That’s a point which is somewhat under the radar as far as “branding” goes for most higher ed institutions. Especially for those, the majority, for sure, who are not in a position to show off a new building which cost $16 million!
The gist of this story, one which I’ve been writing and talking about for the past decade, is that campuses need to address the unquestionably essential issue of fully integrating student career development into both the curricular and co-curricular program. As this story illustrates, numerous campuses are finding creative approaches to realizing this goal. I was consulting a few weeks ago at the University of Florida which recently unveiled its outstanding $10 million Center for Career Connections. The facility immediatley opened up new opportunities for students and faculty to blend both practical career development practices with linkages to their academic programs at home and abroad. The Times story highlights similar initiatives at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Barnard College, Georgia State, the University of California-Irvine, and Johns Hopkins.
Concerns for preparing graduates for entering the knowledge economy and understanding economic globalization have impacted how higher education institutions educate students and align their curricula to the needs of their local, national and regional workplaces, regardless of the field of study or sector. It’s not about the size of the career center or the fundraising prowess of a particular institution, however, it is about the vision of administrators, faculty and staff in redefining how they approach preparing their students to enter a 21st century workforce.
As the NACE executive is quoted above, it is NOT about students getting a job per se, but it IS about the way in which a campus’s assets are brought to bear upon preparing students to maximize what they learn both in and outside the classroom to foster their employability in the “long game.”
Global Career Compass 