Tool:  An International Student’s Road to Employability

The reason for this tool?

While companies in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector are suffering from a particularly tight labour market (CBS, 2023) and are eager for staff, international students fail to find suitable jobs, which regularly leads to them leaving the Netherlands. According to Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, only 32% of graduating international students manage to find a job within the first year after graduation. After five years, as many as 76% of international students have left the Netherlands. This is unfortunate, because of the tight labour market and the additional consequences for the Dutch economy. but also for the international students themselves, since as many as three quarters of the international students have expressed they would like to stay after graduation (Nuffic, 2023).

This tool focuses on the complete employability journey of international students, starting with the study choice to a suitable job in the local labour market after successful completion of the study. The tool is a means to drive the conversation about this topic. The aim of this digital board game is to engage in a conversation with each other about the difficulties and success factors international students experience within their employability journey. In addition, the tool provides insight into where and when the international student needs help and offers concrete tools to increase the local employability of international students. In this way, we want to increase support for interventions aimed at increasing the employability of international students, both within the programmes and in the professional field.

This tool takes you through the full employability journey of international students, starting with the choice of study to a suitable job in the local labour market after successful completion of the study. This board game thus offers insight into the difficulties and success factors they experience within this trajectory. In addition, the tool provides insight into where and when the international student needs help and offers concrete tools to increase the local employability of international students. In this way, we want to increase support for interventions aimed at increasing the employability of international students, both within the study programmes and in the professional field.

This tool is based on interviews with international students for the INTERLOCALITY research project.

What are the rules of the game?

As a player group, choose one international student with whom you will play (the whole group plays with the same character). Hover your mouse or cursor over the international students, located at the top right of the screen, to find out more about the characters.

At the beginning of your turn, click the die to roll and move the international student from start to the corresponding box. Then click on the number in the box. A pop-up screen will then open with more information and a question to be answered by the player group. Engage in a conversation with each other and share your own experiences.

After giving an answer, you can check whether the answer matches what international students themselves indicate. This is done by clicking on ‘find out what students say'.

After this, the die is rolled again and this approach is repeated. The game is over upon reaching the finish line (box 13), when the international student finds a suitable job in the local labour market. Note that the student must land on the last square. If this does not work out, you must move the international student back the number of remaining squares.

Example: At the end of the turn, the international student lands on square 11. On the next turn, 3 is rolled. The international student is then moved to square 12 (from square 11 to 12, to 13 and back to 12 again).

How can you use the tool?

You can download the tool downloaden and print it or access the tool online

For the print version you can download the following files:

You can acces the online tool by using this link.

Or click on the image below.

Colophon

This tool was developed by Luc Hameleers and Dr. Loes van Beuningen, researchers of the Dynamic Talent Interventions Lectorate at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, based on data from the INTERLOCALITY research project. The tool was created with the help of Prof. Dr. Marian Thunnissen and Sander Wijnen.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions.You may use the tool in its original form for non-commercial purposes, provided you cite it appropriately. Please contact us with any questions or suggestions at INTERLOCALITY@Fontys.nl.