As per the latest update by some of the top international education advocates, more work is required to shrink the 'substantial' gap between foreign students and graduate employability that still exists in the United Kingdom.
International career manager at Lancaster University, Noleen Hammond Jones said that career services in UK universities should be completely accessible to the students and must be representative. The institutions in Britain must do something more than what they are doing now to ensure foreign students receive accurate information on support they can get from universities.
She added that evaluation, collaboration and hearing the student's voice are important if students need to feel supported.
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Many students are generally told that fetching good marks is equal to getting good jobs. So even if the international students choose their institution keeping employability as the top reason, many of them are not still thinking about it at that stage, she continued.
Parallelly, senior director of recruiting at Kaplan International Pathways, Claire Cairns has cautioned the institutions to not see international students as a single group, and that employment help should be personalised and tailored. There are also a set of students who do not recognise the worth of their unique experiences for not being directly related to their career goals, while others put unnecessary pressure on themselves to get good jobs after graduation.
These early careers can help them to think about long-term goals, work, and other opportunities they can get after graduation. Various international students are or at least feel like a drawback, rather than an asset, Cairns added. She further explained that students generally face a catch twenty-two situation while searching for a job, however, nowadays, companies only consider experienced candidates with only a few willing to provide a chance to freshers.
As per a recent UPP Foundation assessment, employment support by universities is an area of great possibility, and employers should designate employability for international students in the UK as their top priority.
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She concluded that it is essential for them to revisit and modify the advisory for international students as per the hiring process of their countries' graduate recruitersas well as their labour markets.
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Source: The PIE News