Numerous challenges exist for STEM international students to gain employment upon graduation despite the increasing projections of the need for STEM professionals globally. In this era of social atrophy graduating students are shown to lack the interpersonal skills and empathy that foster collaborative multidisciplinary teams’ success. This paper explores challenges including the lack of cultural competence and awareness, impact of short-lived employment retention after investing time and effort in onboarding or training early career professionals, lack of structured mentorship and an unwillingness to invest resources to groom early career professionals for success by employers and talent recruiters. As a result of exploring these issues, data-based strategic recommendations are presented that promote the awareness of educational institution leaders to cater for STEM-specific industry support for students, mentorship from industry professionals, immersive experiences for workplace cultural integration, and mechanisms for involvement in STEM industry associations. Collectively, these recommendations promote students' job-readiness for STEM careers in any geographic location by the creation of initiatives to expose students to the real-world environments of becoming professionals beyond figuring it out on their own via internships, trial/error, and other traditional means.

Authors:
Arthur Antoine, A-1 EGPMS Inc., Saint Lucia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Arthur Antoine is a Business Owner/Executive at A-1 EGPMS Inc. in Saint Lucia

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