The Impact of Studying Abroad on Graduate Employability - Case Study Example

 THE IMPACTS OF STUDYING ABROAD ON EMPLOYABILITY OF A GRADUATE By Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date INTRODUCTION Since the start of the 21st century, there has been a consistent trend of the number of students that want to continue with the higher-education rise in numbers all over the globe. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of capable students which has portrayed a rapid growth in the numbers of students. As a result of the increases in the numbers of the students that are qualified in higher education, the outcome that has arisen as a result includes over qualification as well as tough competition in the job-seeking sector as well as competition between the native and the international graduates. As per this essay, the effects of studying abroad are put into consideration in terms of the outcomes that arise when it comes to the labour markets. Analysis of the current graduate labour market- general and specific Within the assignment, the examination of the current opportunities that graduates have as well as the trends that affect their employment chances such as the effects or the impacts that labor markets as well as the bearing of the factors that are externally in the influence of the career patterns and also how they affect the ethical as well as the cultural as well as the ethical issues in relation to the quality and efficiency of the work that the graduates produce. The use of relevant competencies as well as the professional standards affect the graduates that are applying as well as dealing with the pressures of employment after they obtain their documents of qualifications. According to Santiago (2008), the positive as well as the negative impacts of the evaluation of the graduates will in scrutiny in relation to the impacts that they face in the market. Past information shows that there was a great difference between the graduate and the non-graduate jobs. The university graduates either joined the graduate professionals joined their respective jobs that they were qualified for, or they were accepted in the schemes of management training with companies that were large as well as prestige. The graduate market as of the present times is more complex than it was some years back basing this on aspects such as; it is more complex in the sense that there is increased global competition as well as advances when it comes to the ever dynamic field of technology. The latter, therefore, means that the workforce that is needed as a result is more skilled as well experienced more than ever before. The results according to Taylor (1997), that have arisen as a result include the fact that occupations that in the past did not originally need a degree now need one and the expansions of the higher education means that there is an increase in the number of people that are obtaining degrees, which as a result has led to the increase in competition of the public sector. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT GRADUATE LABOUR MARKET Recent trends show that employees have increased in their recruitment on the basis of the skills that the graduates posses as well as the quality of their work and in many instances, more vital than the subject knowledge that one may have acquired through their degree. Although it is somewhat hard to define ‘graduate jobs’ in a pin-point manner, OECD, (1998), it is generally known that those graduates that obtain first class honors in their degrees tend to get jobs six months after they graduate. When it comes to the non graduate jobs, in many employment situations, the candidates are required to be in the possession of the relevant skills. An increase in the trend of university leavers to get graduate jobs shows that are non graduate and combine them with activities such as the work experience as well as voluntary work to boost their employment prognosis. Some of the options that the graduates are faced with after completion of their degree include a job in the degree subject that they have qualified, a job whereby they use the skills and the qualities that they have developed in their degree, a non graduate job which is intertwined with activities for the development of the employability chances and working overseas. The general labor market as explained in Autor, ( 2009), is the supply of the persons who in a certain region that are able as well as willing to work concerning the number of jobs that are available. There were fallen in the non-E. U countries in terms of economic performances, which as a result means that there has been a negative effect on the businesses as well as those that are seeking employment. The figures of the numbers of the unemployed people have been on the rise for the past decade which as a result has allowed many more people to be on the case of the benefits that are provided by the governments, which as a result mean that it has to spend more in this sector. One of the major causes of the rise in the unemployment can be associated with the recessions in the economies of the countries which have posed a significant problem for those that are seeking employment opportunities. EMPLOYABILITY: THE STUDENTS THAT STUDIED ABROAD AND THOSE THAT DID NOT As per this session, we investigate the employability of the students that study abroad against those that have studied locally in terms of the mobility in the labor market of the university graduates. As per the ERASMUS student exchange program, we see that the exchange program the students that study abroad have an increased probability of working abroad by about 15%. For the students that study abroad, the mobility of the students in terms of the tertiary education has been established to be a stepping stone when it comes to migration of careers later in life. Empirical evidence to prove the widespread belief between the link of studying abroad and the mobility of the lab our market is to a great extent limited. So as to address these issues, the indignity that relates to the participation of the students in the study abroad programs the use of the university department fixed effects as well as the instruments of variance estimation are used. The statistics show that the studying abroad has quite large positive effects statistically speaking of the chances of getting employed in 3 years after graduation. One of the reasons as seen (Schomburg, 2011), for the latter since the study abroad programs have good employment prospects for the students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Despite the fact that there has been limited research in terms of the employability as well as the outcomes of the students who study abroad, focus groups and interviews show that the students that have studied abroad in some cases have more employability chances than those that did not on the basis that those who got the chance to study abroad got involved in extracurricular activities. Over the decades that have passed, the number of students that have been abroad for their studies is on the increase since the start of the ERASMUS program whereby we see that there has been participation of more than 2 million students. There are many European institutions of higher-education institutes that have the exchange programs for students and have agreements with several numbers of universities outside Europe, which include countries such as the United States, Japan, china as well as many others from all over the globe (King, 2011). ADVANTAGES OF STUDYNG ABROAD Among some of the benefits that the students who get to study abroad gain as opposed to their counterparts who graduate locally include; great academic achievements, personal developments, appreciation as well as understanding of foreign cultures as well as increased levels of innovation due to the factor of exposure to new ideas. Some of the hypothesis that have been developed over time in relation to what the study abroad students gain suggest that the students who have studied abroad increase their employment prospects. The latter is on the basis that they acquire great numbers as well as levels of skills that come to be very highly valued in the workplace. As per Pozuelo (2010), One of the major benefits that are considerable in the workplace includes the gaining of foreign language skills, which are often considered to be the most visible among all the benefits. Other benefits that the study abroad students gains include the gain of knowledge in terms of cultural sensitivity as well as the increases tolerances in the workplace of different conditions whereby we see that both values are highly vital at the workplace especially considering the diversities of the workforce. Festervand and Tillery (2001) did describe how the short terms of study in the study abroad programs assist the students in the professional development as well as the teaching effectiveness that arose from the project. DISADVANTAGES OF ASTUDYING ABROAD Some of the disadvantages that arise with the study abroad programs include that one gains no credit in the sense that sometimes the university that one is attending abroad for the short period does not allow the transfer of credits over to the university back home. Another disadvantage that one may experience may include barriers in language, which make it hard for the learning experiences with harsh realities kicking in such as the variations in the standards of living comparing the home country to the abroad state ( Center for educational research and innovation, 2008). Another major disadvantage as explained in Hess (1997) may be the trauma that one has to face due to the harsh realities that one has to face especially when moving to a place of totally different cultures which in turn may result in order to understanding problems due to ineffective communication between you as the student and others. CONLUSION A conclusion can be arrived at that everything has two sides to it as can be concluded in the case of studying abroad which in this case, the two sides are the advantages and the disadvantages. For sure, a great number of the students will eventually be able to overcome the disadvantages; some of the students may end up not being over the differences in cultures at all, but an overall choice to study abroad is a good choice due to the opportunities that it presents with the choice of being an abroad student being left to the student who is seriously considering the choice to weigh the benefits to the disadvantages. Reference list Top of Form Autor, D. H., 2009. Studies of Labor Market Intermediation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Center for educational research and innovation, 2008. Higher education to 2030. Paris, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, OECD. Hess, J. D. And Hess, J. D., 1997. Studying abroad/learning abroad: an abridged edition of The whole world guide to culture learning. Yarmouth, Me: USA, Intercultural Press. Karaman, A. C., 2008. Conceptualizing international field experiences in teacher education with a systems approach: the interplay between worldviews and social episodes. Thesis (Ph.D.), University of Wisconsin,Madison, 2008. King, R., Marginson, S. and Naidoo, R., 2011. Handbook on globalization and higher education. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Pozuelo-Monfort, J., 2010. The Monfort plan: the new architecture of capitalism. Hoboken: N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Santiago, P., 2008. Tertiary education for the knowledge society. Paris, OECD. [online] Available from [accessed 28 October 2013]. Schomburg, H. and Teichler, U., 2011. Employability and mobility of bachelor graduates in Europe: key results of the Bologna Process. Rotterdam: Sense. Taylor, I., 1997. Developing learning in professional education: partnerships for practice. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Read More