Abstract
Although increasing attention has been paid to post-study career trajectories of returnees in emerging economies, there are very few studies on how returnees navigate the home labour market. To fill this gap, the present study aimed to explore how returnees negotiated their employability trajectories in home labour markets. It employed a mixed-method approach, conducting a survey and individual interviews with 80 and 15 returnees, respectively. The findings revealed that to sustain employability, returnees had to develop and utilise various forms of capital including human, social, identity, cultural, psychological, and agentic capital. In particular, technical knowledge emerged as a neutral factor at all stages of their career development; social capital was crucially important during market entry and for promotion; and an understanding of local work culture and professional skills were significant at the workplace. Most importantly, to achieve successful employment outcomes, career progression, and personal goals, returnees had to exercise ‘agentic capital’ to combine and utilise various forms of capital strategically. The findings implied that various stakeholders should share responsibilities to enable students to build a package of resources for their employability negotiation. Graduate employability should also be assessed a few years after students’ graduation so that useful resources can be revealed and then applied in teaching and learning programmes and support services.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AUIDF (2017) International employment outcomes. Where are they now? Retrieved from https://www.ieaa.org.au/documents/item/1043 on September 20, 2019.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 96–111). New York, NY: Greenwood.
Blackmore, J., Gribble, C., & Rahimi, M. (2017). International education, the formation of capital and graduate employment: Chinese accounting graduates’ experiences of the Australian labour market. Critical Studies in Education, 58(1), 69–88.
Brown, P. (2000). The globalisation of positional competition? Sociology, 34(4), 633–653.
Brown, P., Hesketh, A., & Williams, S. (2004). The mismanagement of talent: Employability and jobs in the knowledge economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bridgstock, R., & Jackson, D. (2019). Strategic institutional approaches to graduate employability: Navigating meanings, measurements, and what really matters. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1646378
Bridgstock, R. (2017). The university and the knowledge network: A new educational model for twenty-first century learning and employability. In M. Tomlinson & L. Holmes (Eds.), Graduate employability in context: Theory, research and debate (pp. 339–358). London UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Campbell, A. (2010). Developing generic skills and attributes of international students: The (ir)relevance of the Australian university experience. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 32(5), 487–497.
Campbell, M., Cooper, M., Rueckert, C., & Smith, J. (2019). Reimagining student employability: A case study of policy and practice transformation. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(5), 500–517.
Cassidy, S. (2006). Developing employability skills: Peer assessment. Higher Education. Education and Training, 48(7), 508–517.
Chen, Q. (2017). Globalization and transnational academic mobility: The experiences of Chinese academic returnees. China: Springer.
Chen, Y. (2008). The limits of brain circulation: Chinese returnees and technological development in Beijing. Pacific Affairs, 81(2), 95–215.
Chooi, C. (2020). International student mobility trends to watch in 2020. Retrieved from https://u2b.com/2020/01/01/international-student-mobility-trends-to-watch-in-2020/?fbclid=IwAR1-Tx0QEcGx5MrOdfIdOxmNhCH8XM1n1VbhVHKIwiA1pi1jQhNq_Z2cARc on January 5, 2020.
Choudaha, R. (2017). Three waves of international student mobility (1999–2020). Studies in Higher Education, 42(5), 825–832.
Cox, S., & King, D. (2006). Enhancing graduate employability: Best intentions and mixed outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 169–184.
Creswell, J. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Finn, D. (2000). From full employment to employability: A new deal for Britain’s unemployed? International Journal of Manpower, 21(5), 384–399.
Forrier, A., & Sels, L. (2003). The concept employability: A complex mosaic. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 3, 102–124.
Fugate, M., & Kinicki, A. J. (2008). A dispositional approach to employability: Development of a measure and test of implications for employee reactions to organizational change. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81(3), 503–527.
Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2004). Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. Journal of Vocational behavior, 65(1), 14–38.
Hao, J., & Welch, A. (2012). A tale of sea turtles: Job-seeking experiences of Hai Gui (high-skilled returnees) in China. Higher Education Policy, 25(2), 243–260.
Harman, G. (2005). Internationalisation of Australian higher education: A critical review of literature and research. In P. Ninnes & M. Hellsten (Eds.), Internationalising higher education: Critical explorations of pedagogy and practice (pp. 119–140). Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre.
Harvey, W. S. (2009). Indian and British scientists considering returning to their home countries. Population, space and place, 15, 493–508.
Heffernan, T. (2020). Academic networks and career trajectory: ‘There’s no career in academia without networks.’ Higher Education Research & Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1799948
Ho, N., Seet, P., & Jones, J. (2016). Understanding re-expatriation intentions among overseas returnees – an emerging economy perspective. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(17), 1938–1966. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1088884
Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350–367.
Jones, E., & Killick, D. (2013). Graduate attributes and the internationalised curriculum: Embedding a global outlook in disciplinary learning outcomes. Journal of Studies in International Education, 20(10), 1–18.
Kwok-bun, C. (2012). A returnee’s hybridity: Its upside and downside. In C. Pluss & C. Kwok-bun (Eds.), In living intersections: Transnational migrant identifications in Asia (pp. 19–36). Singapore: Springer.
LaPointe, K. (2010). Narrating career, positioning identity: Career identity as a narrative practice. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 77, 1–9.
Li, Z. (2013). A critical account of employability construction through the eyes of Chinese postgraduate students in the UK. Journal of Education and Work, 26(5), 473–493.
Lin-Stephens, S., Uesi, J., & Doherty, J. (2015). Chinese returnees’ conceptions of positive career outcomes after graduating from Australian universities – quantitative findings. Australian Journal of Career Development, 24(2), 120–129.
Leask, B. (2009). Using formal and informal curricular to improve interactions between home and international students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(2), 205–221.
Mellors-Bournes, R., Jones, E., & Woodfield, S. (2015). Transnational education and employability development. CRAC. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/TNE%20and%20employability%20development_0_0.pdf. Retrieved on October, 7, 2019.
McQuaid, D., & Lindsay, L. (2005). The concept of employability. Urban Studies, 43(2), 197–219.
Meijers, F., & Lengelle, R. (2012). Narratives at work: The development of career identity. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 40, 155–177.
Ministry of Education. (2006). 自费出国留学人数2005 年增加2.1% [Self-financed students studying abroad increased 2.1% in 2005]. Retrieved May 31, 2007, from http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2007–03/12/content_5832367.htm
Nguyen, P. M. (2017). Intercultural communication: An interdisciplinary approach: When neurons, genes and evolution joined the discourse. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
OECD (2019). Education at a Glace 2019. Retrieved https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2019_f8d7880d-en on September 10, 2020
Oliver, B. (2015). Redefining graduate employability and work-integrated learning: Proposals for effective higher education in disrupted economies. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 6(1), 56–65.
Purcell, K., Peter Elias, G., Atfield, H., Behle, R., Ellison, D., Luchinskaya, J., et al. (2012). Futuretrack stage 4: Transitions into employment, further study and other outcomes. The Institute for Employment Research: University of Warwick.
Goel, R., & Grimpe, C. (2013). Active versus passive academic networking: Evidence from microlevel data. Journal of Technology Transfer, 38, 116–134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-011-9236-5
Pham, L. (2019). International graduates returning to Vietnam: Experiences of the local economies, universities and communities. Singapore: Springer.
Pham, T., & Jackson, D. (2020a). The need to develop graduate employability for a globalised world. In N. Tran, T. Pham, M. Tomlinson, K. Medica, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Developing and utilizing employability capitals: Graduates’ strategies across labsour markets. Netherlands: Routledge.
Pham, T., & Jackson, D. (2020b). Employability and determinants of employment outcomes. In N. Tran, T. Pham, M. Tomlinson, K. Medica, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Developing and utilizing employability capitals: Graduates’ strategies across labour markets. Netherlands: Routledge.
Pham, T., & Saito, E. (2019). Career development of returnees: Experienced constraints and navigating strategies of returnees in Vietnam. Journal of Further and Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2019.1647333
Pham, T., Saito, E., Bao, D., & Chowdhury, R. (2018). Enhancing employability of international students: A need to understand and solve their problems on work-integrated learning (WIL) programmes. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 9(1), 62–83.
Pham, T., Tomlinson, M., & Thompson, C. (2019). Forms of capital and agency as mediations in negotiating employability of international graduate migrants. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 17(3), 394–405.
Pham, A. (2018). Employers’ perspectives on Vietnamese returnee students. In L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 201–215). Switzerland: Springer.
Qiongqiong, C. (2017). Globalization and transnational academic mobility: The experiences of Chinese academic returnees. Singapore: Springer.
Robertson, S., Hoare, L., & Harwood, A. (2011). Returnees, student-migrants and second chance learners: Case studies of positional and transformative outcomes of Australian international education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 41(5), 685–698.
Saito, E., & Pham, T. (2018). A comparative institutional analysis on strategies that graduates use to show they are ‘employable’: A critical discussion on the cases of Australia, Japan and Vietnam. Higher Education Research and Development, 38(2), 369–382.
Tharenou, P., & Caulfield, N. (2010). Will I stay or will I go? Explaining repatriation by self-initiated expatriates. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 1009–1028.
Tholen, G. (2015). What can research into graduate employability tell us about agency and structure? British Journal of Sociology of Education, 36(5), 766–784.
Tholen, G., Brown, P., Power, S., & Allouch, A. (2013). The role of networks and connections in educational elites’ labour market entrance. Research in social stratification and mobility, 34(2013), 142–154.
Tomlinson, M. (2012). Graduate employability: A review of conceptual and empirical themes. Higher Education Policy, 25(4), 407–431.
Tomlinson, M. (2017). Forms of graduate capital and their relationship to graduate employability. Education + Training, 59(4), 338–352.
Tomlinson, M., & Tran, N. (2020). An overview of the current policy and conceptual landscape of graduate employability. In N. Tran, T. Pham, M. Tomlinson, K. Medica, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Developing and Utilizing Employability Capitals: Graduates’ Strategies across Labour Markets. London: Routledge.
Tran, N., Pham, T., Tomlinson, M., Medica, K., & Thompson, C. (2020). The way ahead for the employability agenda in higher education. In N. Tran, T. Pham, M. Tomlinson, K. Medica, & C. Thompson (Eds.), Developing and utilizing employability capitals: Graduates’ strategies across labour markets. London: Routledge.
Tran, N., Truong, H., & Vo, Q. (2019). At-home international education in Vietnamese universities: impact on graduates’ employability and career prospects. Higher Education, 78, 817–834.
Tran, L. T., & Marginson, S. (2018). Internationalisation of Vietnamese higher education: An overview. In L. T. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 1–16). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Worrall, L., Parkes, C., & Cooper, C. (2004). The impact of organizational change on the perceptions of UK managers. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 139–163.
Hao, J., Wen, W., & Welch, A. (2016). When sojourners return: Employment opportunities and challenges facing high-skilled Chinese returnees. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 25(1), 22–40.
GC Zhang WJ Li 2001 International mobility of China’s resources in science and technology and its impact OECD Ed International mobility of the highly skilled OECD Paris 189 200
Zweig, D., & Ge, Z. (2018). How Chinese students who return home after studying abroad succeed – and why they don’t. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2157081/how-chinese-students-who-return-home-after-studying on January 4, 2020.
Welch, A., & Jie, H. (2013). Returnees and diaspora as source of innovation in Chinese higher education. Front. Educ. China, 8(2), 214–238.
Yao, C., Thorn, K., & Doherty, N. (2014). Boundarylessness as a dynamic construct: The case of Chinese early career expatriates. Career Development International, 19, 683–699.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pham, T. Reconceptualising employability of returnees: what really matters and strategic navigating approaches. High Educ 81, 1329–1345 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00614-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00614-2