UEL Students’ Career and Globalization Effects

Introduction

Choosing the right career is a difficult task for any student. While in high school, students are given enough lectures and pieces of advice to be able to choose the right career. Many dream of becoming doctors, pilots, and engineers, but there are no workplaces enough for everyone in these spheres. The parent’s vision for the child is set very high, and sometimes it can make the child disregard his/her own vocation and choose the wrong career. Once in the university, a student is not controlled by the parents concerning his/her studies. The grades also determine the course that the student takes. These courses will predetermine the career of the student.

The UEL (University of East London) is the university that offers quality education to its students in order to prepare for their career in future. A range of programs sets high standards, which is worth paying attention to. Globalization has led to the increased flow of money, goods, services, people, and jobs across borders.

There are several spheres in which companies need to apply certain strategies in order to gain a global advantage. These strategies include developing the intellectual properties network, improving the situation concerning the capital, workforce and markets globally, controlling foreign distribution channels, developing of unique products and services to evade competition, and improved efficiency of every production process. These strategies mean that the employees must be educated in order to achieve firm’s goals. This paper seeks to explain to what extent graduates perceive their career choices in the light of globalization, especially those in UEL.

The UEL and His/Her Professional Training

The UEL offers a wide range of study areas that allow the student to choose an interesting academic area where they aspire for further employment and even start the career development. The world has become a global space, and the education system must focus on offering a student the career that will concern the global achievements and enable students to compete globally. The UEL standards reflect the global demands , which the students coming to Europe and USA from all around the world proves. The UEL has an approximate male-to-female ratio of 48:52 reflecting on the gender balance, and 80% home students, 20% international students reflecting the global perspective (Unifo). Giving students education skills that will help them compete globally and ensuring the students remain competitive and make an impact in their careers is the main aim of UEL. The university has continued to increase in strength above other colleges especially in Anthropology, Architecture and the Visual Arts, Cultural and Media Studies, Education, Psychology and Sports Science.

The UEL Employability Team offers many services at all campuses to help all students develop the best employability skills that are sought after by the employers in the globally competitive market.

The school holds regular career fairs, which gives the students an opportunity to acquire new skills, career contacts, and advice at the campuses. The employability team has annually organized two career events that encouraged to ‘fuel your future’. The employers and students are able to interact in a question and answer session and presentations to fully equip the students in order to be globally competitive. The employers erected stands and the students had chances to visit them to have a glimpse of what it takes to venture in such careers. Moreover, they also participated in a mock interview challenges and a check of their CVs.

UEL students consider that their career choices are affected by globalization in various ways, all careers have been put on the risk by the current global economic crisis. There has been rampant unemployment and collapse of different institutions and investments. This has lead to students not being employed and their careers being at risk of not materializing to the expectations. Careers and courses in any university are designed to be globally competitive and should create an impact not only to the student, but also to the global labor market.

The students are also taught in a standardized way to enhance global competition at all levels (Newmark & Reed, 2000). This encourages the student to be highly effective and concentrate on their career so that once they get the opportunity, they are able to change their future and impact positively to the society. Students are also taught self dependency since most courses in the university make students have independent thinking and rely on survival tactics where a need arises. This enables the students be dependent in the future and to start investments driven by their careers and hence self-employ themselves rather than rely on formal employment that might be hard to come by.

How to Run a Career

There are various ways to run a career. Since all universities train their students to become very competitive, each student need to stay focused on achieving a career that will satisfy him/her. The student can stay positive at all times no matter what happens in the job market and should always expect good tidings (Newmark & Reed, 2000). In addition, a student must be also pro-active in trying to improve his/her employability skills through achieving the necessary experience in the career he/she wishes to pursue, volunteering in co-curricular activities, creating good relations with employers and referees, focusing on the future of the career and working towards its achievements and the chances of broadening its scope, and tailoring a curriculum vitae and application for the said career (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006).

Globalization and Careers

Brown (2003) describes how transnational careers are related to globalization especially how questions on globalization tend to affect the careers. Globalization has the intention of ensuring that trade barriers are as low as possible, new international markets are opened and information and communication technologies are always updated since they all influence employment.

As cited in Brown (2003), over 2 million workers have lost employment in the past several years. The influence of higher productivity and management and hiring practices have had impacts on the loss of employment, but many companies have moved their base from their original countries and set base in less cheaper areas (Blossfeld, & Hofmeister, 2006) thus leading to losses of jobs in the former areas. Education, social, and mental preparation among the students will ensure that they enjoy the maximum benefits from globalization. They will have the best jobs since there is an increased demand for creative and innovative employees. The acquired basic skills and technological competence will enhance success in the job markets and thus help to build a stable career. The students ought to have decision-making and problem solving skills to be able to survive in the ever-competitive job market.

The students who are knowledgeable, educated and flexible will stand the best chances to work in interdependent offices where they get exposed to clients from various countries. This will enable them have more successful careers than their counterparts in the local oriented offices do. The best instrument will be adaptability and change on the part of the student given that they are likely to reap benefits when they are able to change with technology and socially, which is almost virtually possible for students in the universities.

Education and globalization will seem to be inseparable as education affects a wide range of people in all the countries where skilled and earning workers get on surging. The global job market is being flooded with graduates from universities from all over the globe who seek to seize the opportunities and jobs that are advertised and which are more likely to be filled by students who have studied in high ranked international institutions (like UEL) rather than universities that are only locally known. Indeed, Brown (2003) claims that “Lifelong learning appears to be the only key to secure employment. Education affects not only the skill and earning power of workers, but also the economy as a whole” (para.10).

Trends in careers have also evolved from the traditional upward moves that led to increased income, status, and power to a lateral motion which is characterized by switching of jobs and temporary contracts that ensure people move up or downwards career-wise. Contracts have changed the jobs markets development of careers since performance will determine how the career develops. Globally, contracts are offered to fill positions in low skilled countries that give the country time to generate a pool of skilled workers. Those students who have already developed their careers have the best chances to be recruited in such positions (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006). Globalization has also had an effect on fairness in hiring and firing of employees. The market has been fairer since any unfairness is treated as contempt and breach of contracts. The employees and employers have already had an agreement on the terms of employment, and this will keep the balance between the two. If the employee does not perform well, then the contract is broken, and when the employer does any unfair actions, he is liable for prosecution by law. Democracy can prevail in the job markets if the employer is more focused on the quality of the employees’work and if the employee is not threatened by any job instability. Culture and traditional experiences have changed over the years, a situation that creates an atmosphere that enables cooperation and collaboration in various teams and employment opportunities (Blossfeld & Hofmeister, 2006).

In a business perspective, globalization can form a pattern of shrinking profit margins that will require reduced labor costs, which will eventually lead to outsourcing; hence a need for leveraged work force that will improve business competitiveness. In an economic perspective, it may lead to a leveraged global workforce. Moreover, in a professional perspective, it leads to leveraged workforce that means that there will be a displacement of unskilled workers. These displaced workers will migrate to emerging markets, venture into new careers, or increase competition in the hosts local markets (Pan, 2005). For graduates to stay afloat in the job market globally, diversification of jobs and career lines are some of the important options to build a career path that may include managers and executives, services sectors, sales, government jobs, healthcares sectors, technicians, food services industries, entertainment, teaching, and construction industries.

Conclusion

The effects that globalization will have on the job markets will be immense for the uneducated. The educated people will be in a race of time and experience to prove that they are the best suited for the job market which tends to be more competitive on a global platform. Once they get the job, it will be the beginning of building a career which most of them have been dreaming of for a larger part of their lives. Given the competitive nature of the global job market, attainment of globally acceptable and competitive career will be a good betting to ensure that one is not left behind in this global trend. A career is not a one day event, it is a lifetime vision, and excelling in it will require sacrifice, confidence, and concentration, not forgetting being abreast with the happenings in the global market.

Reference List

Blossfeld, H.P. & Hofmeister, H.A. (2006). Globalization, uncertainty and men’s careers: an international comparison. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OoTrOedN6mMC&dq=globalization+and+careers&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=I4ooS_PCOov4mgO5wM2yDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CDoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Brown, L.B. (2003). Effects of globalization on careers: Myths and realities, ACVE, 29. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from: http://calpro-online.org/eric/textonly/docgen.asp?tbl=mr&ID=119

Map of UK Universities. Unifo. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://www.unifo.co.uk/articles/2091/map-of-universities-in-the-uk

Newmark, D. & Reed, D. 2000. Employment relationships in the new economy. NBER Working Paper 8910. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau for Economic Research. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://papers.nber.org/papers/w8910.pdf