EXPLORING INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
he UK’s decision to leave the European Union, swiftly followed by the shock election of billionaire Donald Trump as America’s new president, kick-started a new era of uncertainty for international business, with talk of the dismantling of international trade agreements and the tightening of border controls. Before the surprising events of 2016, there was an agreement among academics and global businesses that graduates would need to prepare for a truly global marketplace and a ‘boundary-less’ business world.
T
“The globalisation process in the economy and society is actually changing the requirements that young people have to live up to when they start their careers,” says a spokesman for Schule Schloss Salem, a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. “In order to prepare them for rapidly evolving business environments, the international focus in education is becoming more and more important.” In the Council for Industry and Higher Education’s
report Global Graduates into Global Leaders, a spokesperson from Prudential agrees. “I think we’re starting to see a particular generation where they think of themselves as, quite literally, world citizens. I don’t mean conceptually – I mean that they see the world as boundary-less, that they are able to move, shift, work anywhere, and do anything.” The Brexit statistics certainly bear out this theory,
with 75 per cent of voters aged 24 and under voting against leaving the EU.
A NEW KIND OF LEADERSHIP Young graduates are aware that expectations of new
recruits are higher than ever before, and that the international skills that are demanded of employees are evolving fast. But forward-thinking young people with an eye on a globally mobile career may face ever-more-complex challenges as they try to negotiate a growing culture of cynicism and fear of globalisation.
“There is a tremendous friction between the forces of globalisation and a large number of people for whom that globalisation doesn’t spell opportunity, possibility or progress, but loss, uncertainty and anxiety,” observed Professor Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor of organisational behaviour at international business school INSEAD, speaking at the 2016 annual conference of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development.
“It is very important not to underestimate it. But I don’t think it is, as some people say, a failure of globalisation. It is a failure of leadership, of leaders’ ability to distribute the value created by globalisation in a fair and humane way.”
Interestingly, while children of parents making an international move may find the upheaval and change of school unsettling, education experts suggest that the international-mindedness and cultural agility that naturally follow a successful global relocation and international education can help to develop the skills required to bridge this gap, particularly when it comes to empathising with the needs of different nationalities and cultures. David Porritt, former headteacher of the British School in the Netherlands Junior School Leidschenveen campus, in The Hague, believes that students at international schools are at a distinct advantage. “International schools are unique environments creating important reflections of the wider world in which we live,” he says. “There is a rich tapestry of variation and cultural expression amongst the students themselves. Watching multilingual, multi-aware and multinational students working together with humility, respect and tolerance is truly inspiring. There is always so much to learn from one another. “Our challenge and responsibility is to develop the next generation of ethically and morally responsible leaders. It is what underpins all of the activities that students get involved in. It’s what we, and they, do all day.” Christopher Schuster, high-school principal of Concordia, an international private Christian school in Shanghai’s Pudong district, agrees. “International students often use their ability to understand complex systems and heightened sense of empathy to fuel passions centred on global development and social entrepreneurship,” he says. “They believe that they can, simultaneously, be successful and make the world a better place, because their educational experiences
have exposed them to countless examples
of amazing people doing those very things. “This gives international students an advantage when it comes to understanding complex systems and solving complex problems. International students are exposed to education-based travel, often exposing them to poverty and geographically isolated cultures. These experiences help
to develop empathy at globally minded citizens.”
“Knowledge is changing quickly, and the ways of making a living are changing even more rapidly,” explains Hugh Burke, headmaster of Meadowridge, an independent International Baccalaureate World School in British Columbia, Canada. “We understand that we live in a rapidly changing world, a world that is increasingly global, increasingly intercultural, increasingly complex and increasingly interdependent. The ability to work with others is central to future success and happiness, and the others with whom we will live come from every culture, and from around the world.”
a young age and create
Left: British International School of Chicago
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