Changing Employer Expectations
Higher education has become more vocationally oriented in the past few years. The expectations of both employers and graduates have changed and therefore employability and graduate outcomes are being more emphasized. This, in turn, reflects the changing nature of employer’s expectations of the graduates and higher education market.
Policies have been designed in Australia for the purpose of encouraging the skilled on- shore migration in order to fill targeted professions shortages. This programs further aims at encouraging overseas students for completing degrees that can enable them to get specific jobs in Australia. Application for permanent residency of the international students is also given additional points in cases where the students are engaged in completing relevant degrees. This, in turn, has significantly increased the number of international students pursuing accounting courses. A significant part of the students studying in the business fields are the international students.
Career can be defined as the system of attitudes and behaviors that is independently perceived and is associated with experiences and occupational activities over the individual’s life period. It can further be described as the evolution process of acquiring experience and skill in the work domain. A number of South Asian international students have considered accounting as the booming career and therefore are attracted towards it. There are a number of expectations and values of the students going in different countries for completing their studies. The behavior of different people is different and they also take action in diverse ways. On the basis of their own qualifications, people arrange employment for themselves. Similarly, the students who go out for studying in foreign countries also have a chance to work and create a better future for themselves (Suutari and Brewster (2000).
Two main stakeholders are involved in the accounting career namely employers and professionals/ students. Skills constitute an integral part of the accounting career and therefore it must be developed by the students for the purpose of meeting the expectations of the employers. This will further assist them in progressing in their career. Professional skills and traits cannot be easily developed by the students with the help of accounting programs (Kavanagh and Drennan, 2008). According to Langenderfer and Rockness (2006), ethical training is not required to be provided to the students for the growth in the accounting domain. Ethical knowledge can be imparted to the students in this field by following the approach proposed in the research. The research discusses the reasons why the subject discussions have been ignored in the study programs. Moreover, it proposes the solution to the issues in incorporation of the subject and teaching ethics in the program curriculum. The framework should perform the function of motivating the students for the purpose of making ethical decisions.
Policies on Skilled Migration and Permanent Residency
Some researchers also reflected that loneliness is suffered by the international students as they belong to different cultures and region. There can be a number of reasons behind the loneliness suffered by them and one of such reasons is lack of connectivity with friends and families and loss of social networking. Social and personal level loneliness influences the working capacity of a person. The differences in culture create a problem which can only be resolved with the help of networking between the local and international students.
The educational and growth outcome of the students is also affected by the personal and environmental motivation. The motivation level is greatly impacted by the environmental conditions offered to the international students. The support received by the student from friends and family is also major factor that impacts the personal motivation. The educational results of those students are low which are not receiving support from the environment and are personally less motivated towards their career. On the other hand, the students that are getting support from the environment are able to get better academic results. Therefore, there is a major relation of the conditions suffered by the students and their success (Dennis, Phinney and Chuateco, 2005).
The research of Gu, Schweisfurth and Day (2010) provided for the adaptation and development of the student in new cultural and educational setup. It further provides that there is interlink between the social networking, language, growth and development of the students in a complicated way. These factors are required to be effectively managed as human development and intercultural adaption is dependent on these. Career growth is the result of promotion, opportunities, location and benefits. Furthermore, the development and cultural adaptation is also impacted by the psychological factors and personal traits (Brown, 2016).
Immense stress is experienced by the students during their international travelling experience. The research provides that the stress experience by the European students is less in comparison to the Asian students. Stress is contributed by a number of factors such as social support attained by the students, social connectivity and language barriers experienced by them. Stress is caused to the international students when they are less proficient in English language causing barriers in communication ultimately leading to lack of social networking and therefore resulting stress (Yeh and Inose, 2003).
The sources of self- efficacy and its measurements are discussed in the research of Anderson and Betz (2001). The social motivation and emotional state of the professionals influences their learning and development. Multiple factors are linked with the career development and therefore directly or indirectly influence the learning experience. The traits of learning and teaching produce a profession’s signature pedagogies. Training is provided to the professionals for thinking, taking actions and performing work with integrity. The pedagogies discussed in the research of Shulman (2005) are relevant to the practitioners of the accounting profession. Career can be developed in this field with the help of these pedagogies.
Importance of Soft and Technical Skills
The changes in the technological and business fields have brought the relevant change in the accounting fields as well. The changes are taking place in the accounting practices and education field is required to take the necessary steps with the view to effectively handle such changes. With the passage of time, decisions will be taken in this profession with the help of technology thereby broadening skillset and work of such professionals. The career opportunities for the students can be enhanced by way of incorporating analytical and interdisciplinary subjects in the education system (Howieson, 2003).
The skillset of the employees demanded by the employers and business communities are also changing. Soft and technical skills are demanded in a balancing ratio in the business environment. Employability and career have a connection between them and both the concepts work in unison as confirmed by the research of Yang (2007) and Di Pietro (2013).
An increase in the importance of presentation, communication and interpersonal communication skills have been noticed in the accounting field. The changing business environment can be easily absorbed by the students having soft skills. Soft skill building must be incorporated by the academic setup for assisting the students in gaining success in the accounting field (Di Pietro, 2013).
Globalization and technological domain has changed the educational setup completely. The costs have also increased with the passage of time. The increase in the scope for such universities along with the cost analysis has been discussed by Morey (2004). This research further explains the career opportunities and advantages.
Consequences of the Australian Education frameworks have been traced by this research paper in the context of the international students. A number of international students are attracted by Australia from different countries for the purpose of facilitating anticipated callings deficiency and keeping up its financial use (Wang, Whitehead and Bayes, 2016). There is a long history possessed by Australia with regard to the advancement of wellbeing informatics. The world wellbeing informatics got affected by the Australian supporters in various territories along with institutionalization, programming improvement, strategy advancement, assessment and training. These advancements have been written about by Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) and Health Informatics Conference (HIC) which is conducted once in a year constitutes a number of points regarding wellbeing informatics. Various segments are covered in the subjects of the wellbeing framework from intense and essential care to open and deterrent health.
Impact of Globalization on Higher Education Institutions and Governments
The global students were not spoken in a similar manner by Australia due to the probability of getting a foreign bookkeeping capacity. The changes as planned to be made to the skilled movement procedure marked ideal on time in the year 2010. It further has proposals for setting up connection between migration and accounting guideline.
With the seriousness of the advanced education framework for delivering the talented nationals as per the need of the 21st century, the governments are reacting and perceiving to social and financial changes taking place worldwide. The impact of globalization on advanced education organizations and singular governments are also ending. Two conceptual analyses are there in the finishing up area i.e. the definite dialogue of the advanced education change by Australian governments and the changes taking place in South Africa’s advanced education with the changes in contemporary world. Reform and globalization in higher education aims to firmly handle the present situation in the advanced education foundations worldwide, challenges and issues to be managed, etc.
Distinct and new pathways have been created by the linking of skilled migration and international education in Australia. Since the year 1998, student switching policies have been developed that favors the international students as they are considered to be the potential migrants. Extra migrations points have been included in these policies regarding new visa categories and Australian qualifications that provide permission to the students to switch their status as a migrant from a student by way of applying for onshore permanent residency. With the help of these policies, key outcome and key motivation can be provided by the migration options for a number of international students who study in Australia. 66 per cent of Indian students and 38 per cent of the Chinese students who graduated in the year 2002 obtained permanent residency at the 2005 Australian International Education Conference Birrell (2005, as cited in Baas 2005). 65 per cent of the international students aim at applying for the permanent residency status according to the graduate surveys (Tilbrook, 2007). Permanent residencies issued visa subclasses of overseas student is now outnumbered by those applied from offshore.
1 % of the former international students who applied in big four received an offer. Moreover, 570 entry level accountants were employed in the year 2007 by the manager of recruitment at KPMG (People and Place, 2008). 450 applications were received from the international students in Melbourne and 500 applications were received in Sydney. However, the appointment of only 10 applicants was made. Beverly Jackling conducted finding regarding this matter and the findings were consistent with this outcome. Interviews were also conducted by Jackling with major accounting employers.
Linking Skilled Migration and International Education
Beverley Jackling (2007) researched regarding the fact that the policies of the Australian governments directs the international students for studying certain discipline types where there ae skill shortages. The results have been researched in the paper regarding the employment of international accounting students in Australia. A survey was conducted among the second year accounting international students in a Melbourne based university for the purpose of obtaining the feedback of employers of accounting graduates. 84 % of the international students made attempts for the purpose of seeking permanent residency in Australia and thought that the study of accounting will help them in seeking such status. The employers feedback suggests that such graduates cannot considered to be work ready for graduate employment.
The research provides that a number of students from different parts of the world come to Australia with different motivations and expectations each year. However, this leads to change in the lifestyle of the students. Australia is considered to be a safe and secure English speaking country which provides opportunities of experiencing new lifestyles and cultures to the students (Rahmani, 2006). The main perspectives of the studies regarding student’s expectations of their lifestyles are health, religion and social life.
The concept of globalization is associated with the requirement for international standard language. The desire for continuing the education in foreign countries has been revealed by the studies specifically in English – speaking countries. Various studies were conducted on acculturation and adaptation of overseas students abroad, some of them emphasized on barriers and social difficulties faced by such students in Australia (Novera, 2004).
The knowledge and education of the local language have been given prime importance by numerous studies for attaining social adjustment and academic success (Novera, 2004; Sawir, 2005; Hellsten, 2002). The requirement for socialization and communication gets impacted by the quality and type of pedagogy acquired domestically (Sawir, 2005; Robertson et al, 2000). As a consequence, academic success is impacted by the incapability of making full participation in class discussion. Due to this, lack of confidence may result in the overseas students as a result of loneliness and stress (Bretag et al, 2002).
The importance of the adaptation of students to cultural and social environment has been highlighted in the study of Novera (2004). The study of Hellsten (2002) further provides that state of reputation and social confidence results in shaping the academic adaptation of the students.