The Global Marketplace and Internships Abroad

For quite some time, education abroad has been seen as a valuable résumé enhancer for students entering an increasingly global marketplace. But international educators know that one of the challenges for students in making that item on the résumé truly meaningful is being able to articulate exactly how education abroad has really prepared them to function effectively in a global business environment.

One of the answers to this challenge may be in the nature of the experience itself.

“Students today understand the value of a work abroad experience to leverage themselves in the global marketplace” says Beth Miller, senior internship coordinator at Weissman Center for International Business at Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY). “An international internship allows students to learn about a different culture, including the business culture, and gain a general understanding of global markets. This allows them to become more competitive candidates for companies, which today have more of a global footprint.”

According to Tony Johnson, president of the Academic Internship Council (AIC), employers, “particularly in times of austerity” are seeking people who have risen to challenges that make them stand out. “An international internship provides a chance for students to develop both personally and professionally—to be independent, and to discover the world of work at different levels and in different cultures. Experiential education has become—quite rightly in my opinion—an almost compulsory part of the academic experience,” Johnson says.

And though the numbers are hard to pin down, partly because many internships abroad are not-for-credit