The Career Outcomes of Learning Abroad project surveyed more than
3,300 alumni of Australian universities in the first comprehensive,
national study of learning abroad outcomes. This report is the second in
the series and presents the major findings of the study.
In terms of the development of important employability skills, around
95 per cent of respondents rated their learning abroad experience as
important or very important for developing their ability to interact
with diverse individuals, communication skills and the capacity to adapt
and learn quickly.
The report further highlights that learning abroad program leaders
and designers are providing a highly contextualised international
experience to participants, no matter the length of stay in host
country.
Students are learning the entire time they are abroad and yet the
learning recognition frameworks of many Australian universities are
based entirely on classroom contact hours. Within this context, the
report’s author, Dr Davina Potts, proposes standard credit evaluation
practices could be redesigned to better recognise the entire learning
proposition of learning abroad programs.