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Employable International Students or Internationally Employable Students Implications for Strategy

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Title: Employable International Students or Internationally Employable Students Implications for Strategy


1
Employable International Students or
Internationally Employable Students?
Implications for Strategy Practice
  • Dr Siobhan L. Devlin
  • University of Sunderland
  • siobhan.devlin_at_sunderland.ac.uk

International Dimensions of Employability
Sheffield Hallam University 22 March 2007
2
Where Im coming from
  • Member AGCAS Internationalisation Task Group
  • Mixed membership Careers Advisers, International
    Student Support, Internationalisation Development
    Manager, Academic, British Council, AGR,
    Employer, UKCOSA.
  • Representatives from HE institutions in England,
    Scotland and Wales
  • Remit to support, inform and promote the
    internationalisation /of employability agenda to
    students, employers, HE educators and support
    professionals.
  • Member AGCAS/HEA Liaison Group
  • (replaced former ESECT Think Tank)

3
  • Principal Lecturer (Pedagogic Practice) School
    of Computing Technology
  • Teaching Fellow 2003-5 Investigating the
    experience of and provision for international
    students at the University of Sunderland
  • Run several International initiatives _at_ UoS

4
where Im going to
  • current focus
  • International students need to be targeted as
    something special/deficient/requiring of extra
    resource
  • Employability for International Students
  • should be
  • How to benefit all our students through
    internationalisation/ global employability/
    intercultural, personal, skills development
  • Internationalising Employability

5
Q. What makes someone internationally
employable?
6
Desirable qualities (Leask, B., 1999)
7
Global Economy Skills (DfES, 2004)
  • 2004 report Putting the World into World-Class
    Education
  • ability to work confidently in multi-national
    teams
  • knowledge of different business methods,
    legislation and ways of working
  • understanding and appreciating different
    cultures
  • feeling confident when working in and with
    different cultures.

8
Q. How does a person acquire these
skills/qualities?
9
A. By virtue of a UK Higher Education
10
CIHE report (2006)Benefits of UK HE
  • multi-cultural and diverse society, institutions
    and systems
  • problem-based learning develops more innovative,
    questioning, analytical, lateral-thinking and
    entrepreneurial graduates
  • multi-disciplinary and work-experience approaches
    available to students, creating a broader
    knowledge and skill base
  • high international regard for our qualifications
    and research and development excellence

11
but!
  • 2006 International Student Barometer careers /
    employability scored low
  • How multi-cultural is our society / are our
    institutions?
  • Tell us how to mix with UK people
    properlybecause in fact theres lots of barriers
    to get close to them
  • Problem based learning great for some
    students / desirable skills for some markets
  • Work experience not available in practice

12
International students disadvantaged in UK
  • ?
  • Difficult to know UK students/ other
    international students
  • Have no/little knowledge of work application
    process in UK or at home
  • It took me a few interviews to grasp the 'style'
    of a British interview.
  • Our lack of understanding of this country...is a
    big problem. It could make our work performance
    much more worst
  • Not confident of own language abilities
  • ?
  • Employers have no/little knowledge of work
    application process in UK
  • Employers not confident of students language
    abilities - oral skills lackingdidnt come
    across as confident in interview
  • ?
  • Want to find placements in UK
  • Ambitious and motivated
  • Part-time work through friends e.g. in Chinese
    Restaurants, cleaning etc.

(Evidence from Bournemouth Sunderland focus
groups)
13
UK students disadvantaged globally?
  • Poor language skills
  • Poor empathy skills / lack of self awareness /
    reflection / bigger picture..in particular..
  • Lack of cross cultural understanding and
    competence
  • Some multinationals say overseas students who
    come to the UK show
  • "more initiative, self-motivation and drive as
    well as language skills.They wonder if such
    students through their very mobility are a
    self-identifying elite with senior management
    potential. CIHE (2006)

14
So, for whole student body
  • 2 clear barriers
  • language
  • intercultural competence (linked to self
    awareness, reflection and empathy)
  • It is a struggle to overcome these barriers
    because
  • lack of opportunity for integration / interaction
    which would make for better communication, cross
    cultural competence / capability /
    understanding.. in fact

15
lack of opportunities to develop
  • the ability to work confidently in multi-national
    teams
  • knowledge of different business methods,
    legislation and ways of working
  • understanding and appreciating different
    cultures
  • feeling confident when working in and with
    different cultures.
  • (2004 DfES report!)

16
Q. Why are the opportunities lacking?
17
  • Poor curriculum design/pressure to teach more
    students in less contact time?
  • Pressure to ensure subject-based knowledge LOs
    achieved leaves little room for inclusion of
    these important other skills?
  • Other/transferable skills sidelined to
    extracurricular activity
  • Tutors attitudes?
  • Lack of awareness of student body no managed
    interaction
  • Students attitudes?
  • domestic students positive about presence of IS
    but may lack interest or will to develop/initiate
    contact, believing it is foreigners
    responsibility to integrate into host community
    (Sanchez, 2004 Ward 2006).
  • Fear of communicating across culture need
    guidance!
  • Institutional attitudes/strategies?
  • Most PG courses now largely international
    students, means
  • less chance for contact with domestic students
  • Implications for curriculum development

18
Curriculum Development
  • More varied LTA approaches
  • More managed interaction between
    students-students and staff-students (staff have
    much to learn from the students!)
  • Intercultural interaction, in and out of the
    classroom does/may not develop naturally (De
    Vita, 2003)
  • When we do the group works I do wish the teacher
    could give our opportunity to mix students from
    any regions (Sunderland student)

19
Curriculum Development
  • More structured opportunities for student / staff
    mobility
  • More globally relevant materials used
  • PDP?
  • most effective if linked to programme LOs/
    supported by academics/ underpinned by support
    from across beyond the institution
  • Integrating PDP into the curriculum may be the
    best way forward to ensure cross-cultural
    interaction, as
  • International students spend more time than UK
    students studying subject content, attending
    English classes etc. Many also spend time
    volunteering for work experience.
  • Home students have own commitments outside HE

20
Q. PDP is overtly about Employability should it
be overtly about Cultural Skills Development?
21
Evidence from small scale evaluation at
Sunderland
  • Q. Should the focus of PDP be specific to your
    culture/nationality?
  • That would be useful for the overseas students
  • (UK student)
  • Either this is a viewpoint that culture
    something that other people have
  • Or it is an awareness by students that current
    PDP is ethnocentric

22
Challenges/Implications for Strategy Practice
23
  • Ensuring institutional strategic commitment to
    internationalisation
  • For the right reasons e.g.
  • ? profile higher than quality as a motivator
    according to IAU(2005)
  • ? Student Staff Development is a key emerging
    rationale

24
  • Reviewing curriculum/LTA strategies for managed,
    cross cultural interaction
  • Managing tutors attitudes/ developing their
    skills
  • Managing students attitudes/ fears/ disinterest
  • Challenge view (among international students
    overseas employers?) that employment opportunity
    is better than employability development

25
  • Understanding employer needs
  • Challenging employer attitudes/ misconceptions

26
Sample Good Practice addressing these challenges
  • Governmental/Strategic/Institutional Level
  • Understanding (culturally led) student and
    employer needs
  • e.g. Manchester researching Chinese home
    graduate recruitment market
  • e.g. Huddersfield Career Opportunity
    Partnerships Scheme recognising particular
    difficulties of Chinese finding UK work
    experience (Northern Consortium Chinese
    employers)
  • e.g. PMI 2 overseas LMI information / work
    with local employers

27
Sample Good Practice addressing these challenges
  • Practical Level
  • Equipping students with cultural competence
  • e.g. Intercultural Communication Units/modules
    (Bmth Sland)
  • Providing Opportunities for interaction
  • Initiatives to overcome linguistic and cultural
    barriers _at_ Bmth, Sland, (also see HEA website
    internationalisation case studies)
  • Providing flexible means of gaining work
    experience
  • e.g. International volunteering e.g. _at_
    Northumbria, Sunderland

28
Sample Good Practice (practitioner level 2, 3,
4)
  • Curricular
  • Intercultural competence modules (e.g. Sland)
  • Global Perspectives (Bmth)
  • Extracurricular
  • e.g. SLANG
  • e.g. ECC
  • Volunteering

PDP
It is in interests of all students to bring
extra-curricular into mainstream Many
international students volunteer in the community
this benefits them and the community but
doesnt make the local students
globally employable!
29
Finally, we need to work in partnership..
  • Across institution - as advocated in Going
    Global AGCAS ITG publication)
  • with employers
  • with other institutions
  • regionally, nationally, internationally
  • to ensure the research/ good practice/
    institutional strategy is filtered down to the
    practical level and that the delivery staff
    receive appropriate support and training to be
    able to help students/develop material etc

30
References
  • Brown.G, and Termnouth,P. (2006) International
    Competitiveness, Businesses Working with UK
    Universities (Summary and Recommendations).
    Council for Industry and Higher Education
    www.cihe-uk.com/docs/PUBS/0605ICSummary.pdf
  • DfES (2004) Putting the world into world class
    education
  • De Vita, G., 2003 Internationlisation through
    authentic experiences of intercultural
    interaction. Teachingnews 2003/4 (online).
  • Knight, J. (2006) Internationalisation of HE New
    Directions, New Challenges. 2005 IAU Global
    Survey Report
  • Leask, B. (1999) Bridging the gap
    internationalising university curricula.
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