Welcome to the new CET podcast Abroad Perspective with your hosts Jason Wang and Allegra O’Donoghue!

We manage intensive language programs for Chinese and Arabic at CET and a couple of years ago were given the opportunity to address the lack of career integration for language students in study abroad. So what is career integration, exactly?

In our context, it’s about integrating the study abroad experience into career and life planning as a student. A major focus of career integration is developing and articulating skills. Unfortunately, language students are often left out of this conversation since it’s pretty obvious that language students are developing an easily articulated hard skill in Arabic, Chinese, etc. The assumption is these students are all set, but that’s just not true.  To read more on this topic, check out an article we wrote on page 99 of the Career Integration Conference journal Reviewing the Impact of Experience Abroad on Employment. 

We are continually looking for ways to counter what we refer to as an overly simplistic narrative that language skills = job. We have launched this podcast as a forum for bringing more voices to the conversation and giving program alumni a platform to share their experiences and paint a more realistic picture for the newer generation of study abroad students.

Whether you are a proactive first year college student thinking about study abroad and where it can take you, or someone recently returned from a term abroad, and are thinking “what’s next?”, or you’ve recently graduated, and are navigating your way through the work world, we hope you’ll listen!

We would love to hear from you! Please send your questions and comments to podcast@cetacademicprograms.com

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