Abstract
Wellbeing has been argued as an important aspect of employability; however, little has been known about the wellbeing of international graduates in the host labor market. This study aimed to explore the association between employability capitals and wellbeing of Chinese international graduates when they develop their careers in the Australian labor market. A capitals-based approach to employability and the PERMA model of wellbeing were applied as the conceptual framework. This chapter deployed a qualitative approach to explore how different capitals (e.g., human, social, cultural, psychological, identity, and agentic capitals) influenced the graduates' wellbeing in the Australian labor market. Fourteen Chinese international graduates participated in in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that the six capitals influenced the participants' wellbeing differently in terms of PERMA; the contributions of several capitals to the participants' wellbeing depended on the fields, and both subjective wellbeing and accomplishment were highly individualized.
TopIntroduction
The number of international students studying abroad continues to increase (OECD, 2021). International education is popular in destination countries (e.g., Australia, Germany, the United States of America, the United Kingdom) because of the reciprocity for both the host countries and international students. Australia is the second most populous destination country for international students in the global international education market (OECD, 2021). International education has also made significant contributions to Australia in terms of economic benefits (Department of Education, Skills, and Employment, 2020), a large number of jobs created (Deloitte Access Economics, 2015), and increased opportunities in international collaboration and alums engagement, hence developing a multicultural society in Australia (Department of Education and Training, 2016). On the other hand, international students have achieved various benefits, including experiences of a new culture (Nguyen & Hartz, 2020), new teaching and learning (Cameron et al., 2019), opportunities to develop networks (Tran et al., 2019), and post-study employment prospects (Pham, 2021a). As such, Australia recognizes the importance of international education and thus supports enhancing international graduate employability to maintain competitiveness in the global international education market.
The employability of international graduates in Australia has drawn significant attention from researchers (e.g., Bridgstock et al., 2019; Clarke, 2018; Donald & Mouratidou, 2022; Jackson & Bridgstock, 2018; Pham, 2021a; Tang, 2022), but the focus was on the transition from university to the labor market. Many researchers argue that employability is more than being employed after graduation. Specifically, researchers argue that wellbeing is another vital aspect that stakeholders value in the job market (Di Fabio, 2017; Maxwell & Broadbridge, 2017; Nimmi & Donald, 2023). Additionally, wellbeing is strongly associated with career sustainability (Donald et al., 2020; Nimmi et al., 2021). Employees with high wellbeing will likely show high work performance and staff retention (Donald et al., 2020). There is ample evidence on the wellbeing of school students (primary, secondary, and tertiary) (Anderson & Graham, 2016; Kern et al., 2015; Prasath et al., 2021) and how academic stress, loneliness, and acculturation influence international students (Wawera & McCamley, 2020). However, international graduates’ wellbeing is not well investigated. Moreover, it is unclear how wellbeing is associated with the employability of international graduates and what contributes to wellbeing.
International students from China make up the most significant proportion of international students in Australia and contribute the largest proportion of education export income to the country (Deloitte Access Economics, 2016). However, limited research investigates their wellbeing for their post-study career development. Therefore, this chapter aims to fill this gap by exploring Chinese international graduates’ wellbeing while developing their careers after graduation in Australia. This chapter also aims to provide a landscape of how six employability capitals (human, social, cultural, psychological, identity, and agentic) could be associated with international graduates’ wellbeing during the employability trajectories. This chapter reviews the relevant literature on international graduates’ employability and wellbeing, followed by the conceptual framework, methodology, findings, discussions, and conclusion.
Key Terms in this Chapter
PERMA: According to Seligman, five building blocks enable human flourishing and wellbeing – Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (hence PERMA) – and there are techniques to increase each.
Career Development: Career development refers to the process by which individuals plan and manage their own learning and work experiences to build and maintain their desired careers over time.
Employability Trajectories: Employability trajectories refer to the paths or journeys that individuals follow in their careers, including job changes, skills development, and other experiences they have along the way.
International Graduates: Refers to international students who graduate from tertiary education in a country other than their own.
Career Sustainability: A job that aligns with an employee's interests, strengths, and values offers continual learning and renewal opportunities so that they can achieve their full potential.
Wellbeing: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), wellbeing is a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Like health, it is a daily life resource determined by social, economic and environmental conditions. Wellbeing encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose.
Employability: Employability is defined as the various individual resources and capitals as employability inputs to navigate the labor market and realize different aspects of employability outputs or outcomes.
A Capitals-Based Approach: This approach includes six capitals (i.e., human, social, cultural, psychological, identity, and agentic capital) and captures all aspects of individual resources as employability inputs at the individual level to understand graduate employability.