Spending time in a new country can be an excellent way to open your eyes to new ways of thinking and living. It forces you outside of your comfort zone in a beneficial yet exciting way, encouraging you to grow and stretch in ways that you never thought possible. At the same time, you have the chance to receive an international education, which can help you prepare for work in an increasingly international business environment.
Thanks to the growing role of technology, you can speak with people in other countries easily through video chat platforms that can almost feel as though your contacts are next door, instead of on the other side of the world. The world is becoming increasingly connected, and businesses respond in kind. This means that students who have the opportunity to gain some international experience during their studies will have many benefits they can bring with them to the professional world.
Studying abroad in an international school, like EHL, can offer you a variety of benefits, both professional and personal. Here are 6 that stand out that provide excellent motivation for pursuing international education.
Build your job opportunities or educational opportunities
With each passing year, our world becomes increasingly interconnected. The better people understand how different cultures operate, the easier they will find it to interact with others in this environment. The skills that people learn in an international environment, including language skills and international experience, will benefit them in all areas of life. They will find it easy to employ a variety of soft skills, including problem solving and teamwork, as they learn to get along with people from different backgrounds.
Even for those who do not plan on venturing too far from home, a study from the Erasmus Student Network found that 64 percent of employers value study abroad experiences in the candidates that they consider for different positions. Additionally, 92 percent of employers place a high value on the ability of job candidates and recruits to engage with people from other cultures and backgrounds. The interpersonal skills, informational literacy, and critical thinking that people gain when learning in an international environment will benefit them across their job search. This explains why people who have experience in international environments also have a high earning potential-- as the experience and skills that come from the time abroad can help people earn up to 25 percent more than others who did not study internationally.
In the hospitality industry, it is common to face people from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. You might work in an organization that hires people from a variety of different countries. If you work in a popular travel area, you might also encounter guests and customers from many different regions of the world. Employees who have experience in an international environment will naturally be at an advantage, which means that employers will also desire these candidates.
Similarly, when seeking a job at an international company or MNC, having experience in international environments can prepare you for the position. Your experience navigating cultural and language differences can help you thrive in this type of corporate atmosphere.
Even if you choose to move on to further studies after finishing your international degree, you will also find that this part of your resume can help you stand out from the pool of applications and prepare you to succeed in a new, challenging environment. Schools like to find candidates who bring different skills and backgrounds to their student population.
Experiencing and living with cultural diversity
International study experiences also create a cross-cultural environment. You will interact daily with staff and students from several different countries and backgrounds. Exposing yourself to this environment helps to broaden the mind and improve your ability to work and coordinate on numerous school projects with people from different cultures and experiences.
In any professional or school environment, group projects offer opportunities to develop soft skills, such as leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. When the group you work with will come from an international pool of students, it enhances each of these benefits. You learn to focus on the different strengths and create a team model that captures the benefits and skills of each member.
By bringing together a range of skills and talents, the groups that manage to capture these different abilities can become highly productive and effective. Contrary to groups where people approach problems from the same background and similar experiences, more diverse groups can tap into the unique perspectives available, which in turn encourages innovation and creative thinking.
As the world becomes increasingly diverse and people regularly move around the globe in business and travel, a diverse understanding of culture and an ability to adapt and work together despite cultural differences offers a professional and personal benefit that stretches across all areas of your life. Your cultural diversity and understanding will make it easier for you to navigate similar situations in the future.
Boost self-confidence and grow as a person
You will naturally boost your self-confidence as you find yourself in different challenging situations and you see how you can respond and adapt. Studying at an international school will offer you ample opportunity to learn more about yourself and build your confidence.
When you study abroad, for example, you will have the chance to learn the local language. When you first arrive, however, you will likely encounter some language challenges, even if you did have some familiarity with the language beforehand. Your creativity and ability to think quickly will be put to the test as you learn to navigate in this new environment.
Learning a new language will provide you with immense professional benefits, as you will have an additional skill for your resume. Studying a language in the country also allows you to learn the language in a more natural, organic way. You can make friends from the local areas, travel to the region, and master the language and learn about the culture while living there. You will gain a nuance to the language that cannot exist in a textbook, providing you with an additional level of fluency.
As you live abroad and immerse yourself in a new way of looking at the world, you will also see how closely your idea of ‘normal’ is tied to your cultural heritage and what you feel accustomed to from your native area. Your time in another country will challenge these preconceptions, which in turn helps you mature. You will get a chance to better understand what is really important in life to help you clarify your goals and dreams. This clarity can then help you propel forward and achieve what matters the most to you.
Through all of these experiences, you will gain self-confidence and begin to grow as a person. Your new experiences will help you consider new ideas, see what you are capable of accomplishing, and build your confidence as you realize you can confidently navigate challenging situations. Those skills will help you throughout your professional career.
Global citizenship
Studying internationally revolves around learning the cultural differences, values, and how to interact with people from other backgrounds than yourself. It goes beyond even international values and attitude to completely immersing yourself in the new country and beginning to become a global citizen.
When you live in other cultures, rather than just learning about them in an academic context, you begin to gain a better understanding of worldly affairs. Your concern for the world as a whole and people from other countries takes on a more personal note. You start looking out for the entire world, rather than just your country or region. Your sense of responsibility grows from a global perspective.
As the world becomes more connected, people who have this outlook on the world and its people will become a valuable part of the fabric of society. You will be in a position to contribute to discussions and influence ideas as both a human and a citizen of the world. This can help, in turn, create better relationships between people and encourage increased understanding between differing cultures.
As an added bonus, as a global citizen, you will also find that your comfort when traveling increases. You will feel accustomed to getting around in foreign places and surrounded by people speaking a new language and different customs. Rather than feeling intimidated, you will have a greater understanding of how to navigate and appreciate that which you encounter.
Find new interests
When you first live abroad, many people encounter a phenomenon known as ‘culture shock’. After the initial excitement of the new country begins to wear off, they begin to magnify and confront the differences between their own culture and the one in which they live. These differences might range from food availability to language and include everything in between. In the face of these challenges, many students may find themselves struggling to adapt at first.
However, as you begin to move past the culture shock and experience all that this new culture has to offer on a deeper and immersive level, you also begin to expand your interests and activities. Students studying internationally find that they try food that might not have had opportunities to eat before, or they might engage in activities that might have only heard about before arriving in the new country. By living in the country, their opportunities expand far beyond what they might have encountered as only a tourist.
By trying these new types of activities, students uncover opportunities to develop new interests and hobbies. They will expand their concepts of themselves, growing in entirely new ways. Additionally, these new interests, tastes, and experiences can help unite you with people from new countries and backgrounds, providing you with an excellent basis to form friendships and professional relationships that will benefit you across all areas of life.
International alumni
After four years of studying with different people coming from all over the world, you will develop friendships and tight bonds with people who live internationally. Once you all graduate, you might have friends who live on the other side of the world, but your common experiences back at school provide you both with wonderful memories and the basis of a lasting relationship.
As you nurture these relationships, you also build your lifelong professional and social network. Whether you travel in the future for fun or business, these relationships might help you enjoy these trips on an entirely new level. Additionally, your relationships and your network can help you open doors in life. Whether you want to work for a company in a new country or if you want to strike out into the business world on your own, these personal relationships from your time in school can help you reach your goals. These connections can provide you with everything from advice to words of recommendation as you build your career.
Nurturing this broad, international network of alumni can also help you maintain many of the benefits and skills you gained while studying in a new country. You will hear more about global affairs from different perspectives, perhaps continue to practice languages you learned in the other country, and have an opportunity to continue to enjoy and relish in your new-found interests and hobbies from your time at school. These international connections can help you maintain your ties to the international community and continue to be a truly global citizen.
When it comes to having adventures and growing as a person during your time in higher education, studying in a new country and attending an international college is an excellent way to accomplish your goals. Professionally and personally, the benefits of attending an international school like EHL cannot be fully expressed. If you want to challenge yourself and see what you can accomplish in an entirely new environment, consider attending an international school. Uncover the doors it will open and the experiences it can offer for yourself.