International graduate employability: homeward bound
国际毕业生就业能力:回国
Since the pandemic began, international students have experienced huge impacts on their academic experiences, which have extended to graduate employment prospects, work experience and placement opportunities. Ultimately, Covid-19 has forced students to navigate an ever-evolving climate that leaves future employment ambiguous.
疫情爆发以来，国际学生的学业经历受到了巨大影响，包括毕业后的就业前景、工作经验和就业机会。最终，Covid-19迫使学生们在不断变化的气候中摸索，未来的就业前景模糊不清。
This is without the unique challenges and barriers already faced by international students, who study abroad with hopes of building prosperous careers, meaningful networking connections and brighter prospects.
这是没有国际学生已经面临的独特挑战和障碍，他们出国留学是希望建立繁荣的职业生涯，有意义的网络联系和更光明的前景。
A survey of 1,202 final year students by Prospects in 2020 reported “significant disruption” to students’ “professional development and career journeys”, with 70% indicating negative feelings towards job prospects. A later Early Careers Survey in 2021, which gathered responses from 7,000 UK-based students and graduates, reported nearly 50% felt “unprepared” for employment, with almost 40% uncertain of their career plans following graduation.
《就业展望》网站在2020年对1202名大四学生进行的一项调查显示，学生的“职业发展和职业生涯”受到了“严重干扰”，70%的人表示对就业前景持负面态度。后来在2021年进行的一项“早期职业调查”(Early Careers Survey)收集了7000名英国学生和毕业生的反馈，报告称，近50%的人感觉自己对就业“毫无准备”，近40%的人对毕业后的职业规划不确定。
However, non-EU students residing in the UK are less likely to express negative feelings when asked about their career prospects, a further survey in 2020 found. Just over two-fifths (41%) of non-EU students and grads in the UK expressed negative sentiments, while the same was indicated by 56% of UK students and 54% of EU students.
然而，2020年的一项进一步调查发现，居住在英国的非欧盟学生在被问及职业前景时，不太可能表达负面情绪。在英国，超过五分之二(41%)的非欧盟学生和毕业生表达了负面情绪，而56%的英国学生和54%的欧盟学生表示了同样的看法。
But even positive-minded students have speculated on Covid-19’s detrimental impact on graduate employability. A 2021 study by Manca Sustarsic and Jianhui Zhang, published in The Journal of International Students, found that as well as increased stress and anxiety levels among students, the pandemic had impacted international graduate students’ future employment in the US.
但即使是思想积极的学生也猜测了Covid-19对毕业生就业能力的不利影响。Manca Sustarsic和张建辉于2021年在《国际学生杂志》上发表的一项研究发现，除了学生压力和焦虑水平的增加，疫情还影响了国际研究生未来在美国的就业。
According to one student, the loss of her summer internship “changed the way I could be in touch and get to meet people in my field”. Another commented that “some companies and organisations try to hire US people first before internationals. I am more concerned about that.”
一名学生表示，失去暑期实习“改变了我与领域内的人保持联系、认识他们的方式”。另一位评论说:“一些公司和组织试图先雇佣美国人，然后再雇佣外国人。我更担心这一点。”
If this is the case, will employability-minded students continue to choose to study overseas? And what about those students hoping to return home after graduating?
如果是这样的话，注重就业的学生还会选择出国留学吗?那些毕业后希望回国的学生怎么办?
Many international students pursue postgraduate degrees to give themselves an edge or to change careers entirely, especially since Covid. This, Louise Nichol, founder of the Asia Careers Group Consultancy, tells The PIE, “masks a far greater issue as the majority of international students return home to start their early careers”.
许多国际学生攻读研究生学位是为了给自己带来优势或彻底改变职业生涯，特别是在新冠疫情之后。亚洲职业咨询公司(Asia Careers Group Consultancy)创始人路易丝•尼科尔(Louise Nichol)告诉the PIE，这“掩盖了一个更大的问题，因为大多数国际学生回国开始自己的早期职业生涯”。
Under-resourced and undervalued
资源不足和被低估的
One of the most important phases for international students following graduation is deciding whether to stay abroad, or seek employment back home. Nichol says universities are failing international students by focusing “exclusively” on host country opportunities, with “little if any support for these students and no data on international graduate destinations to help guide them into successful careers”.
对于留学生来说，毕业后最重要的一个阶段就是决定是留在国外还是回国找工作。尼科尔说，大学“只关注”东道国的机会，“对这些学生几乎没有任何支持，也没有关于国际研究生目的地的数据来帮助指导他们走向成功的职业生涯”，这让国际学生感到失望。
The majority of “western careers advice”, Nichol says, is for the most part, irrelevant for students who are job searching back home. The focus on post-study work opportunities by agents, recruiters and students themselves – especially with the graduate route in the UK and Canada’s policies driving immigration – is not necessarily helping matters.
尼科尔表示，大多数“西方职业建议”在很大程度上与回国找工作的学生无关。中介机构、招聘者和学生本身对毕业后工作机会的关注——尤其是在英国的研究生路线和加拿大的政策推动移民的情况下——不一定有助于解决问题。
“The first thing is to be clear regarding international students’ career aspirations – do they wish to stay in their country of study and take advantage of post-study work visas or return home?” Nichol asks.
“首先要搞清楚国际学生的职业抱负——他们是希望留在留学国，利用留学后的工作签证，还是希望回国?”Nichol问道。
“Their desired location will significantly impact the advice they are given.”
“他们想要的位置会对他们得到的建议产生重大影响。”
Likewise, students “need a realistic understanding of the prospects for migration” and how best to apply their experiences back home as they risk being away from the employability market too long and becoming “out of the loop”.
同样，学生“需要对移民的前景有现实的了解”，以及如何最好地应用他们在国内的经历，因为他们有可能离开就业市场太久，成为“回路之外”。
Sanam Arora, founder and chairperson at National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK, said at The PIE Live in March that there remains a “very significant” gap for international students, with many viewing their status as a drawback rather than asset.
英国全国印度学生与校友联盟(National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK)创始人兼主席萨纳姆•阿罗拉(Sanam Arora)今年3月在The PIE Live上表示，国际学生仍然存在“非常显著”的差距，许多人将他们的地位视为缺点而非资产。
“Instead of employability being centred around education, I think it has to be the other way round now. Education has to be centred around employability,” she told delegates.
“我认为现在应该以教育为中心，而不是以就业能力为中心。教育必须以就业为中心，”她告诉代表们。
Noeleen Hammond Jones, international careers manager at Lancaster University, tells The PIE that it has become “apparent to senior leaders within universities that there needs to be amendments made to careers resources to achieve the employability outcomes that they promised to students, and that includes a dedicated international resource within a team”.
兰开斯特大学的国际职业经理诺琳·哈蒙德·琼斯告诉The PIE，“对于大学的高层领导来说，很明显，他们需要修改职业资源，以实现他们向学生承诺的就业能力结果，这包括团队中有专门的国际资源。”
“They don’t tend to put in the resources in the professional services side of things, it’s one of the first areas to get cut”
“他们不倾向于在专业服务方面投入资源，这是首先被削减的领域之一。”
However, regular department cuts and national under-resourcing has proven a significant challenge for careers services.
然而，经常性的部门削减和国家资源不足已被证明是就业服务的一个重大挑战。
“Universities depend on rankings and graduate outcomes but they don’t tend to put in the resources in the professional services side of things. It’s one of the first areas to get cut. It can be massively under-resourced,” Jones says.
“大学依赖排名和毕业生的成绩，但它们往往不会在专业服务方面投入资源。这是第一个被削减的领域。它可能严重缺乏资源，”琼斯说。
Shane Dillon, founder and CEO at Cturtle, tells The PIE that some universities are better at international student support than others, although students equally need to be preparing themselves for the reality of job markets, both in their host countries and back home.
Cturtle的创始人兼首席执行官Shane Dillon告诉The PIE，一些大学在国际学生支持方面比其他大学做得更好，尽管学生们同样需要为面对就业市场的现实做好准备，无论是在本国还是本国。
“This is why it is important to access networks that can help in connecting students with internships and graduate and alumni job opportunities,” says Dillon.
Dillon说:“这就是为什么建立能够帮助学生获得实习机会、毕业生和校友就业机会的网络非常重要。”
The Handshake Careers Report, which looks at the careers sector of 2032, highlights concerns that universities are “not preparing [students] with the industry specific skills they will need in the contemporary job market”. Students require more integrated support, including more strategic relationships between student unions and careers services, it posits.
《握手职业报告》(Handshake Careers Report)着眼于2032年的职业领域，它强调了人们的担忧，即大学“没有为(学生)准备他们在当代就业市场所需的行业特定技能”。报告认为，学生需要更多综合的支持，包括学生会和就业服务之间更有战略意义的关系。
According to Rebecca Fielding, founder of Gradconsult, it is clear that “collaboration and co-design between employers, career services, students and educators will be key to future success”.
Gradconsult创始人丽贝卡•菲尔丁(Rebecca Fielding)表示，很明显，“雇主、就业服务机构、学生和教育工作者之间的合作和共同设计将是未来成功的关键”。
Linking education with employers
将教育与雇主联系起来
A UUP Students Futures report released earlier in 2022 noted that if the UK is to remain a top destination, more “sector collaboration”, opportunity intelligence and support through all stages of international students’ journeys are needed.
2022年早些时候发布的一份UUP学生未来报告指出，如果英国要继续成为首选留学目的地，就需要在国际学生旅行的所有阶段进行更多的“部门合作”、机会、情报和支持。
Mary Stuart, commissioner of the Student Futures Commission and co-chair of the sub-group, indicated that although international students make major contributions to UK teaching, this is “not always reflected in the provision of adequate numbers of training staff to provide careers and progression guidance tailored to the culture and contact of the students themselves”.
学生未来事务委员会委员兼小组联合主席玛丽·斯图尔特表示，尽管国际学生对英国教学做出了重大贡献，这一点“并不总是反映在提供足够数量的培训人员，为学生提供适合其文化和接触的职业和发展指导”。
Rong Huang, an associate professor in Tourism Marketing at the University of Plymouth Business School, wrote for WonkHE after the release of the report, that, despite an expectation that international students who come to the UK to study must adapt to our systems, “we barely acknowledge that culture shock works both ways”.
荣,在旅游市场营销学副教授普利茅斯大学的商学院,写给WonkHE报告发布后,尽管有一个期望,国际学生来英国学习必须适应我们的系统,“我们几乎不承认,文化冲击是双向的”。
“[We] overlook the fact that many international students need to re-culturalise back into their own country after their studies,” she noted.
她指出:“(我们)忽视了一个事实，即许多国际学生在毕业后需要回到自己的国家重新适应文化。”
The UPP research found some 50% of UK institutions delivered tailored careers guidance and advice to students, although 56% have no specialist support staff to cater international employability and 44% do not provide them with tailored or specific enough guidance.
UPP的研究发现，约50%的英国院校为学生提供量身定制的就业指导和建议，尽管56%的院校没有专业的支持人员来满足国际就业能力，44%的院校没有为学生提供量身定制或足够具体的指导。
Currently, 84% of services in the UK help students to develop their understanding of job markets overseas, with regions prioritised according to student demand, including locations exhibiting high alumni numbers and campus locations overseas. Careers advice needs to authentically reflect employability opportunities overseas, it suggested.
目前，英国84%的服务帮助学生了解海外就业市场，根据学生需求优先选择地区，包括拥有大量校友的地点和海外校园地点。它建议，职业咨询需要真实地反映海外的就业机会。
“We embed local employability skills into our classes”
“我们将本地就业技能融入到我们的课程中”
International students need to be engaged as early as possible, and provided with accurate, relevant information, especially for those planning to return home, Jones says.
琼斯说，国际学生需要尽早参与进来，并为他们提供准确、相关的信息，尤其是那些计划回国的学生。
“It’s working with those students in those programs to make sure that they’re aware of ‘right OK, now is the time to start applying’, and also engaging with employers in those regions to get in front of the students and really share how the recruitment process might differ slightly,” she explains.
“这是与那些学生在项目合作,确保他们知道就好了,现在是时候开始应用”,也与前雇主在这些地区的学生,真正分享如何招聘过程可能会略有不同,”她解释说。
“How the students engage with those processes, where they find those opportunities and to help the students to create competitive applications.”
“学生如何参与这些过程，他们在哪里找到这些机会，并帮助学生创建有竞争力的申请。”
Tobias Kliem, head of campus at Arden University Berlin, notes that students begin thinking about their careers when approaching graduation. “[It’s] too late to develop the skills and local knowledge they need to be successful in their short-term career goals.” Additionally, differences in “employability customs” and best practice can raise “red flags” to other prospective employers internationally, he explains.
柏林雅顿大学(Arden University Berlin)校园负责人托拜厄斯•克里姆(Tobias Kliem)指出，学生们在临近毕业时就开始考虑自己的职业。“要想在短期职业目标中取得成功，他们需要培养技能和当地知识，现在太晚了。”此外，“就业能力惯例”和最佳做法的差异可能会给国际上其他潜在雇主发出“危险信号”，他解释说。
“To support this, we embed local employability skills into our classes – this helps us to keep careers on the agenda throughout their time with us and ensures that students have the knowledge they need to succeed at interview in their desired local market, before they graduate from their course,” Kliem tells The PIE.
“支持这个,我们嵌入当地就业技能类,这有助于我们保持职业议程在与我们自己的时间,保证学生在面试成功所需的知识在他们所需的当地市场,在他们毕业,之前“Kliem告诉派。
Dillon, expressing sympathy for universities when developing and maintaining relationships with international employers, describes it as “incredibly challenging” for two reasons.
狄龙对大学在发展和维持与国际雇主的关系时表示同情，称这是“难以置信的挑战”，原因有二。
“One is employers do not want a single university to recruit from, they want access to a large candidate database and all available talent and secondly, the university needs a large network of employers to really be of value to all their student populations both in terms of industries and locations,” he says.
“一是雇主不希望一个大学招聘,他们想要进入一个大候选人数据库和所有可用的人才,其次,大学需要一个大型网络的雇主真正有价值的所有学生人口的产业和地区,”他说。
It seems that it’s not what you know, but who you know that gains international students jobs after graduation. The lack of professional networking is a huge issue, Dillon indicates.
留学生毕业后找工作的关键似乎不是你知道什么，而是你认识谁。Dillon指出，缺乏专业人脉是一个大问题。
“This is why we have just launched our new data-driven employment platform called JOB+. JOB+ uses employment data from over 1.5 million international alumni to connect international students and fresh graduates to a network of 350,000+ local, regional and global hiring managers and recruiters,” Dillon highlights.
“这就是为什么我们刚刚推出了名为JOB+的数据驱动的新就业平台。JOB+利用来自150多万国际校友的就业数据，将国际学生和应届毕业生与35万多名当地、地区和全球招聘经理和招聘人员联系起来。”
The outlook post pandemic
大流行后的展望
Besides having international representatives on careers teams and empowering international student voices, how else can servicing an increasingly diverse cohort of international students be achieved? One answer could be through alumni networks, Kliem suggests.
除了在职业团队中有国际代表和增强国际学生的声音外，如何为日益多样化的国际学生群体提供服务?克里姆建议，一个答案可能是通过校友网络。
“Staying in touch with alumni can provide enticing case studies for students and enable them to access advice from people who have been in a similar situation to them,” says Kliem.
与校友保持联系可以为学生提供诱人的案例研究，使他们能够从与自己有相似处境的人那里获得建议，”Kliem说。
“For international students, many of whom may be looking to work globally, a network of alumni working in different countries can also give them insight into local customs and advice on the local job market.”
“对于国际学生来说，他们中的许多人可能希望在全球范围内工作，一个在不同国家工作的校友网络也可以让他们了解当地的习俗，并就当地就业市场提供建议。
Data collected from Asia Careers Group over a five-year period following students returning to Asia after studying in the UK proposes that, although not the fault of universities entirely, there has been no focused engagement between international employers and UK universities.
亚洲职业集团(Asia Careers Group)在5年时间里收集的数据显示，尽管这并不完全是大学的错，但国际雇主与英国大学之间一直没有有针对性的接触。
“A catch-all provision is impossible to implement successfully”
“一刀切的规定不可能成功执行”
“It is a big world out there and without data on which employers engage with it is challenging to know where to start,” Nichol advises.
尼科尔建议:“这个世界很大，如果没有哪些雇主参与其中的数据，就很难知道从哪里开始。”
“Asia Careers Group is able to fill this gap, providing universities with their leading graduate destinations by country for all major Asian markets, which allows universities to focus on employer engagement. With this data, universities can channel more students (than the present handful) into leading Asian employers overseas that recruit diverse roles within their organisations.”
“亚洲职业集团能够填补这一空白，为所有主要亚洲市场的大学提供按国家划分的领先毕业生目的地，这使得大学能够专注于雇主参与。有了这些数据，大学可以把更多的学生(比目前的少数人)输送到海外领先的亚洲雇主那里，这些雇主在自己的组织内招聘不同的职位。”
Jones remains optimistic, with employers having learned how they could be more adaptable, engaging with not just the best local talent, but the best overall talent.
琼斯仍然保持乐观，因为雇主们已经学会了如何提高适应能力，不仅要与当地最优秀的人才打交道，还要与最优秀的整体人才打交道。
The effects of Covid have brought about a “perfect storm” for many key student countries, with a return on investment from education by means of employment being a key differentiation for universities wishing to recruit international students, Dillon adds.
狄龙补充说，新冠肺炎的影响给许多重点生源国带来了一场“完美风暴”，通过就业方式获得教育投资回报是希望招收国际学生的大学的一个关键差异化。
Kliem continues, “Undoubtedly as we move forward with careers services for international students, personalised approaches will become increasingly important. The challenges international students face when applying for positions in different territories mean that a catch-all provision is impossible to implement successfully.
Kliem继续说道:“毫无疑问，随着我们为国际学生提供就业服务的推进，个性化的方法将变得越来越重要。国际学生在申请不同地区的职位时面临的挑战意味着，一项全面的规定不可能成功实施。
“Only by offering this support from the very start of the student journey can we offer the very best outcomes and improve the student’s chances of graduate employment in their desired field.”
“只有从学生学习之旅的一开始就提供这种支持，我们才能提供最好的结果，并提高学生毕业后在他们想要的领域就业的机会。”
