Last week, I decided to meet someone who has expertise in supporting creative graduates for their further journey and transition after graduation. I want to know more about perspectives of how the UK’s organizations such as universities would know about the challenges international creative graduates face except for the local graduates and how they provide help and support to them, I contacted the graduate support team and got a chance to talk to the Graduate Employability Support Manager of UAL Seema Shoor.
I started with a question about her understanding of the challenges that international creative graduates may face when they are adapting to the UK creative industries.
Here are three points she talked about about her understanding of challenges
-Lack of Experience
She made a comparison of international graduates and home graduates that reflects the fact that international graduates have less experience than UK home graduates because many home graduates already had part-time job experience when they were 16 or 17, they got an understanding of how to apply for the job and they know more about the what they want to go forward. It is important for them to help international graduates know about what clues they are looking for.
-Three big aspects
The first one is understanding of where to look forward, the second is understanding of how to look forward, and the third one is understanding of how to sale yourself.
-Visa challenges
To know when should they apply for the Graduate Route Visa and make the decision.
My reflection on this conversation
I realized that from the perspective of Seema, the challenges international graduates probably face are between time limitations, Decision-making, and hands-on experience. She talked about the general problems that international graduates might face during their transition from being a student to being a graduate. She knows that without guidance for the understanding of how to take those actions, there would be challenges among these actions. After the discussion with Seema, I think I should test more about the challenges of decision-making with my stakeholders because when I was talking to some of the graduates, they always had concerns about their future decisions. These concerns might be also related to the lack of experience and the time limitation. I think it would be helpful for their adaptation journey with a better understanding of making their decision.
We have also discussed building a professional network which is considered as one of the most important abilities for international graduates. Accordingly, it is critically valuable for graduate students who are not only advancing their professions but also looking for opportunities to expand their knowledge and competence. (Angela, 2013) She gave me some inspiration which I think could become my references for developing the ideas for my intervention based on the realistic cases happening now for example the alumni searching tool on LinkedIn, the Graduate Employability Support site of UAL, and the Alumni Association.
