Our recent features on global skills-building and the increasing demand for employees with international work and study abroad experience arose from conversations we had with multiple companies and government agencies during the summer's conference by the National Association of Colleges and Employers). As an exhibitor at the conference, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN had an opportunity to mill around among employers large and small from all sectors, as well as officers from scores of college career offices.
In discussing diversity recruitment strategies with various HR folks, a recurring topic was the pressing need for and difficulty of finding new hires with foreign language and cultural fluencies. The need seemed to cut across all sectors, but was especially prevalent in post-9/11 government work -- and not only in the obvious departments like State and areas like intelligence. Our foreign entanglements have created such a demand that we met recruiters who reported the existence of several thousand dollar sign-up bonuses for kids coming right out of college, given the right attributes and skills (say, U.S. citizens with decent grades, an IT or engineering background, experience living abroad, and language and cultural fluencies needed to navigate working conditions in certain "hotspots" of the world). Government recruiters know that such candidates are in short supply, and must compete for them against large private sector companies offering appealing compensation and benefits.
Simultaneously, we were mulling over research by the Institute of International Exchange and other organizations showing that certain profiles of students -- especially males, and especially African American males -- were significantly under-represented in college study abroad and international internship programs.
We set out to explore the degree to which students lacking global skills-building opportunities would be at a disadvantage entering the workforce. We further wanted to examine the varied forms of support for students interested in building skills and working abroad: from undergraduate study abroad or internship programs to off-campus foundations promoting co-op exchanges, from graduate degree opportunities designed to position people for careers in foreign affairs to corporate rotational programs that cycle employees through foreign offices as part of leadership/management development.
Along the way, we also invited a number of successful alumni of such programs to share their stories and observations about how to find and maximize global skills-building experiences. Those former interns have gone on to become a foreign relations expert from the State Department, a network analyst working in the banking industry, an anthropology major committed to promoting knowledge of African American history, and even a "rocket scientist" -- a radiation engineering specialist at NASA.
In compiling the edition, the editors noted that other, unrelated articles and interviews with major employers also referenced and stressed the increasing importance of global skills and language skills as entry-level employment criteria. It crops up in Mike Wilson's survey of 7 major employers, "Insider Information: What Recruiters Look for in On-Campus Interviews," and again in the special report, "Top 100 Diversity Employers," which surveys both students and major employers.
In this way, the editors were interested to find ourselves with an "accidental theme edition". It seems that the relative lack of global skills among American students is on many people's minds right now. Fortunately, there's also a growing collective effort among colleges, private employers, students, nonprofits and (in some cases, government) to specifically forge opportunities for young Americans to "get global". We expect this to be a continuing trend, and to the benefit of everyone involved. We also expect to continue to publish feature and reference content focused on international work topics, both for "outward-bound" U.S. students and for our readers abroad.
[Image here is a detail of our First Semester 2006 cover, designed by the fantastic articst Tony O Champagne.]
