Addressing career services' internationalisation challenges through transnational consortia

Abstract

Providing high quality education and student experience is critical to attracting and retaining students in an increasingly competitive environment. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are under growing pressure to 'guarantee' their graduates' employability and successful access to the labour market. On the other hand, with the increase of international student mobility in the past few decades, a new student profile has emerged, which includes broader professional perspectives in geographical terms. One of the challenges for HEIs is, therefore, to develop their graduates' relevant skills and support them with structures that ease their integration into the local, national or international labour market.The aim of this paper is to outline both the current context and status of the internationalisation of European career services and the main challenges faced in this process. An exploratory single case analysis is used to identify how the formation of international career service consortia could contribute to overcoming some of the challenges, especially in terms of resource efficiency and international network development and reach.