The importance of employability skills and opportunities to international students

The importance of employability skills and opportunities to international students

Our recent research indicates that employability and how education providers can better link learners to job opportunities is a key focus for many international students.

From developing work-ready professional capabilities to gaining valuable employment experience whilst studying, students from all over the world want to be able to seamlessly progress into skilled roles post-graduation.

As Dr Mark Cunnington, Chief Operating Officer for the UK and EU at Study Group comments:

“Feedback from our students shows that alongside studying for their degree, they are looking for more from their university experience. A key focus for many is the employability skills and work opportunities they can access alongside studying on our academic programmes.

“Many students opt to take a placement year/sandwich degree to incorporate a year of working in industry to their university education experience. However, international students are now wanting more employability options open to them.

“At Study Group, we have taken on board this feedback, to develop an employability offering for our students that supports them to get to where they want to be. In relation to the UK and EU, it includes specialist career-focused modules embedded into our pathway programmes, new Job Ready and Virtual Internship digitally-enabled initiatives and much more. So far, reactions from students about our employability offerings have been very positive.”

Study Group's employability offering 

CareerAhead

In a highly competitive graduate employment landscape, graduates need to demonstrate their strengths and experience to potential employers. Students start this preparation at their Study Group International Study Centre (ISC) or College through the CareerAhead module, integrated into their pathway programme.  

CareerAhead activities include:

• Identifying personal strengths and areas for development.
• Developing key employability skills such as problem solving, teamwork, time management and communication capabilities.
• Creating a personal development plan and identifying career goals for future success.

“I was given the CareerAhead questionnaire online to fill in. It helped me realise which skills and areas I should work on and pay more attention to.”Michelle from Malaysia, studied at Study Group’s University of Sussex International Study Centre.

Summer internships

For the past few years, Study Group has offered internship opportunities to a select group of pathway programme students progressing to university. The top performing Student Ambassadors have the option of taking up a paid summer internship with Study Group’s Global Student Recruitment team.

As a leading international education provider, Study Group is passionate about offering students chances to boost their skills and get them career ready. The part-time internships, based either virtually or in a Study Group office, has proved incredibly successful in recent years and we look forward to welcoming the 2021 interns to the team very soon.

Virtual Internships

To further expand our employment experience provision for international students, we have recently partnered with Virtual Internships Ltd, offering international students’ studying in the UK and Europe online internships and global work placements across 70+ different countries and 18 career fields.

Having access to a virtual work placement experience helps students prepare for the world of work, enabling them to put the knowledge they have gained from their academic studies into working practice.

Benefits of a Virtual Internship:

• Enhance employability with evidence of work experience from a range of prestigious employers.
• Prepare for the future workplace by gaining experience of working remotely.
• Opportunity to put pathway programme learning into practice and develop professional skills and experience outside the classroom.

Job Ready

Job Ready is a new service offered to confirmed students that is designed to help them learn how to write a compelling CV, interview with confidence, and improve their ability to secure a job and gain experience in the world of work while they study. 

Job Ready is delivered by Study Group career development partners – and is completely free to students joining us on our UK programmes in Autumn 2021.

“During my Study Group ISC course we were introduced to how to write a CV and the necessary criteria. I had no idea what goes in a CV. All of that was cleared up for me and we’ve had a lot of support throughout the year to write the CV.” 

Mohamed from Egypt studied at Study Group’s University of Sussex International Study Centre.