You can now find the article Cultural understanding as a key skill for employability, written by Nannette Ripmeester & Darla K. Deardorff, on the first edition of the book Internationalization and Employability in Higher Education, published by Routledge. This book is a key resource for any higher education policymakers or university staff associated with careers, employment, and integrated learning.

Cultural understanding as a key skill for employability
Given an increase in the importance of employability for today’s college graduates, international student recruitment has seen a growing emphasis on return on investment (ROI). “It is becoming more and more vital that universities also prepare graduates for the world of work. This means that the development of soft skills, like team-playing and resilience, often becomes as important as the technical skills and knowledge acquired during a degree,” mentions Nunzio Quacquarelli, CEO of QS, in the report The Global Skills Gap in the 21st Century. With employers’ desire to hire students well-prepared for diverse work environments (British Council, 2013a; Leppänen, Saarinen, & Airas 2014; Ripmeester, 2014), higher education institutions need to more closely examine the link between intercultural preparation and workplace success. Such preparation goes beyond student mobility, given the small percentages of students who actually study abroad (Institute of International Education, 2017).