EXPLORING INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT FROM TODAY’S


SCHOOL-LEAVERS Speaking at the Worldwide ERC Global Workforce Summit in Shanghai, Kimberly-Clark’s vice-president of HR Asia Pacific, Naomi Monteiro, outlined what she believed were the qualities required of today’s graduates and school-leavers. “We are looking for top talent who want to be global


leaders. We certainly don’t want them to be worried about what country they live in. Quite often, these young people don’t have a conception of where they come from, because they were born somewhere different from their parents, and now live somewhere else.” In the future, she predicted, people would be even more ‘agnostic’ about where they came from. She felt that this would be great for building global leaders.


Claire Snowdon, director of the consultancy service Expat Know How and former UK co-chair of Families in Global Transition, has observed the close alignment between the key competencies needed in the world of work and the International Baccalaureate programme, which is taught in many international schools across the world. These include, she says, “the ability to work collaboratively with teams from a range of backgrounds and countries, excellent communication skills, both speaking and listening, an ability to embrace multiple perspectives and challenge thinking, and an ability to influence clients across the globe from different cultures.” Adds Ms Snowdon, “Time and again, we find that some of the key skills and competencies are the focus of the IB programme.”


AN INTERNATIONAL CURRICULUM Clive Pierrepont, director of communications for school


group Taaleem in the United Arab Emirates, believes that, in an IB school, these competencies are fundamental and are lived and taught as part of everyday life. In fact, says Tim Waley, former principal of Taaleem’s Uptown School, Dubai, “The whole cultural basis for our existence exemplifies these ideals. Staff, students and parents relate very closely to them, and as such they remain shared and expected outcomes from an education here. We see these, and others, that provide an ethical, civil and internationally educational package for young people as being integral to success in the world in which our graduates will live.” The British School of Brussels (BSB) offers three pre- university routes: A Levels and the IB and BTEC vocational courses. But Mark Andrews, head of Careers at BSB, believes that it is the international focus of the school that gives students the edge. “We hear regularly from university admissions about how much they value true internationalism, cultural awareness, and the resilience and adaptability of international students,” he says.


“International schools have a vital role to play in fostering understanding of, and for, people of different nationalities and belief systems,” says Sue Woodroofe, BSB’s principal.


“They are a model of how we can all live and work together in a positive, purposeful and happy environment, with mutual respect at its heart.


“When our students leave us, wherever they go and whatever they do in the future, we trust that they will take this model out into the world and lead by example, proving that it is possible to live in peace and cooperation with everyone. You could say that they are all the diplomats of the future!”


BRITISH EDUCATION: GLOBAL EXPANSION In its report International Education Strategy – Global Growth and Prosperity, the UK government went some way to acknowledging the importance of an international element to British education, including welcoming overseas students into schools and higher-education institutions in Britain. According to the Independent Schools Council (ISC), there are 44,032 non-British students attending ISC schools in the UK, of whom 27,211 are international pupils with parents living overseas. The ISC believes that international student numbers in independent schools could increase by 3 per cent per annum in the near future.


The UK government is not only keen to increase those numbers, but also recognises the diversity international students in the UK bring to the education sector, helping to provide an international dimension which, it believes, benefits all students.


“Engagement in international education enhances the reputation ... of UK institutions,” says the report. “The experience of students in UK education helps to create good relations that will enable successful engagement with the next generation of global leaders. International education also helps to strengthen overseas business, research, social and cultural links.” Not only are British institutions welcoming international


students


into the UK, but branches of highly regarded independent schools are quickly establishing foreign campuses, and many British-run schools have been offering a British education to globally mobile families for years. The strong international reputation of a British-style education is fuelling demand around the world, with a reported 40 per cent of international schools using a UK- based curriculum. Five new branch campuses of UK boarding schools opened between 2014 and 2015, bringing the total to 44 overseas outposts that collectively educate 24,710 students. Mark Herbert, head of schools’ programmes at the British Council, said, “The UK has long held a reputation for world-class education, and this emerging opportunity for growth overseas is exciting. It is too soon to tell the long- term impact of how the cultures of some of the UK’s oldest boarding schools will combine with communities thousands of miles away, but with the current approach, there is potential win-win for both sides.”


John Bagust, member of the COBIS executive committee and head of primary schools at Prague British School, said at the COBIS annual conference, “With a perpetually changing


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