Miss Graebner helping at an orphanage in Mexico. She majors in art restoration and conservation, but deferred her studies this year to work abroad. — PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMANTHA GRAEBNER
NEW YORK: As unemployment continues to climb in the United States and recent college graduates get only rejection letters in the mail, many of these young Americans have decided to hotfoot it abroad.
While those with MBAs and finance degrees can land jobs related to their studies in developing countries, graduates with general degrees are finding that their English language skills can also take them places.
But first, they have to get official certification to show that they have what it takes to teach the language.
The traditional way is to become Tefl (Teaching English as a foreign language) certified – a mandatory requirement for teaching in Europe but not in most of Asia.
Companies in the US offering this certification programme are reporting high attendance. At the Chicago-based Tefl Institute, 600 students registered for classes last year, but the number is expected to exceed 1,200 this year.
Labour statistics estimate that one in 10 college students will graduate this year without a job. But executives in the job placement industry, such as Tefl vice-president for business management Bruce Jones, prefer to look at the positive side.
‘People are using their new unemployment as a justification to go abroad, something they probably would not have done had they a secure job,’ he said.
Mr Joe Diaz, 22, who has a degree in economics and Spanish from Hamilton College in New York state, will be moving to Burgos, Spain, to become an English teaching assistant. Living in Spain will give him a small but steady income – €700 (S$1,400) a month – and the opportunity to travel cheaply.
Connecticut College graduate Sarah Barr, 21, who majored in English and philosophy, will be heading to Chonburi in Thailand to teach English and ‘to see the world in a different way’.
While the graduates look forward to experiencing new things abroad, they know that the work stints are but a temporary reprieve from the dry labour market in the US.
Indeed, Mr Jeremy Kressman, director of mobile strategies at research firm MobileBehavior, said a combination of factors has influenced the trend to work abroad.
‘Technology has enabled an interesting shift in how the current generation of graduates gathers and evaluates information, particularly when it comes to career choices,’ said Mr Kressman, who has studied youth online trends since 2007.
‘Tools like social media and mobile technology emphasise the collection and sharing of life experiences like travel, so there’s added incentive for graduates to value these experiences as a new form of social and professional capital.’
In the past, fresh graduates who decided to spend a year abroad doing jobs without a career path were viewed as slackers. That stigma is gone, said Mr Kressman, because of the current economic climate and the lack of jobs at home.
‘In that sense, getting global exposure is just as valuable, if not more so, than climbing the rungs of a traditional career ladder.’
So valuable, in fact, that some college students are trying to work out how they can get the best of both worlds.
Miss Samantha Graebner, 20, who majors in art restoration and conservation at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, deferred her college studies this year to work abroad in Madagascar, Africa, and Mexico – and then went to Florence, Italy, to study art.
‘To see how people make a life for themselves in other countries is a huge learning experience. It taught me that I don’t need to be working in a cubicle in order to make a living,’ she said.
tricia.ismail@gmail.com
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