College students today are always looking for opportunities to develop professionally so they can have an added edge in the post-grad job search. The irreplaceable experiences that come along with study abroad – navigating language barriers, new cultures and unfamiliar environments – offer students a unique chance to grow. Academic travel is a great way to develop valuable people skills and fast-track career goals, and these are key ways that you can advertise study abroad programs to your students.
According to the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), companies want to hire recent graduates that have eight defined career competencies. Among these eight, the three competencies study abroad particularly develops are:
Teamwork/Collaboration
Meet people with different backgrounds to you.
Going abroad allows college students to meet people with different backgrounds. Studying abroad allows you to work closely alongside people with different backgrounds. This can show employers an ability to work with different personalities, communicate, and resolve conflict, evidence that graduates will be able to collaborate with team members in their prospective workplace.
Discover new styles of working.
Your style of working changes as you move from college to work, from working hours to levels of team collaboration. Studying abroad and entering into another country’s education system gives students the opportunity to show their ability to adapt to other methods of working.
Leadership
Planning
Leadership requires several skills: time management, the ability to think ahead and a proactive mindset. These are all shown by just planning to go abroad – it shows that students are self-starters with a proactive attitude to bettering themselves.
Exemplify Social Responsibility
Give your students the opportunity to show that they can lead by example. Study abroad is the perfect opportunity to volunteer too. In our study abroad programs, students can learn about sustainability through working with a local recycling organisation in Cambodia or help villagers farm in rural China.
Global/Intercultural Fluency
Global Citizenship
Being able to respect other cultures is incredibly rewarding and highly valuable in an increasingly global world. Study abroad allows students to learn to communicate with people from different backgrounds, as well as to be in tune with different cultural and religious sensitivities, histories and customs. For example, in North Korea, your students could speak to a North Korean defector, and in Hiroshima, your students could learn about the aftermath of the bomb.
Global Companies
Even smaller companies often have offices in several countries now, thanks to the advancements of modern technology. Not only that, businesses are always expanding into international markets. This means that graduates need to be culturally literate in order to form strong partnerships and client relationships. Study abroad builds several skills needed to work in a global company, including language learning, cultural sensitivity and adaptability in a new country.
