Article by Paul Rodan.

From an Australian human resources perspective, the increase in international graduates offers both a challenge and an opportunity, in a time of skills shortage and an aging workforce.

Professor Paul Rodan There is an amazing paradox in universities at present: never have our students(domestic and international)  been undertaking more part time (often full time) work while enrolled for study, yet graduates are seen, more than ever, as not work-ready, and all this at a time of skills shortages in key areas. This great disconnect, which -- leaving government permanent residency issues aside -- is mostly due to a lack of meaningful, integrated, large scale engagement among universities, employers, professional and industry bodies and the Human Resources sector.

Collectively, we seem to overlook or choose to ignore attributes which international graduates bring to the world of employment. To quote from the Bradley discussion paper Australia has experienced persistent shortages in a range of professional areas served by the higher education sector.

It needs to be stressed that if skills shortages persist, it may not be a question of choosing between a local or an international graduate: it will be imperative to seek qualified graduates in both categories. It has been suggested recently that the federal government's decision to abolish full fee paying places for Australian undergraduates will lead to a further shortage (up to 20 per cent) of commerce graduates. If this is true, then employers will need to take a close look at international graduates who may be en route to permanent residency. Perhaps market pressures will then help put behind us stories of well-qualified international graduates having to change their names in order to get considered for an interview.

The first qualities an international graduate brings are simple: determination and courage. I just can't imagine what it would be like to leave home and family and go the most isolated continent on earth to study in my non-native language. I thought it was a big deal to leave Perth for Brisbane for my first job in the 1970s. But, even on the most uncharitable version of what Brisbane was like in those days, there is simply no comparison between that journey and those made by these graduates. At every graduation ceremony I attend, I am simply in awe of their courage and initiative. Is there an employer who wouldn't find these valuable qualities?

And, while every graduate demonstrates a measure of persistence and determination to make it to graduation day, I suggest to you that international graduates usually need to be even more determined and persistent, overcoming greater challenges so far from home, and usually without the level of support, especially from family, which a domestic student can rely on.

The next quality they bring is a global perspective. Almost by definition, they will be internationally knowledgeable and inter-culturally competent, and I would emphasise the need for Australian universities to help secure this result for all students, but the international student has a head start. All graduates will need to be prepared to work in a globalised economy even if the majority of them may never actually work overseas. An economic Fortress Australia is simply not an option.

Overwhelmingly, international graduates will usually be bilingual, another skill in which I am deficient, unless one counts school boy Latin, which proved singularly useless when I tried to adapt it to Italian in tight situations in that country. In some cases, this bilingualism will be of direct benefit with a specific client base, but more generally, such an employee has a level of cultural depth.

Because some international graduates come from cultures which stress the group over the individual, they are often well suited to work in teams and undertake cooperative assignments, more so than those with a more western individualist ethos.

Finally, international graduates offer companies a chance to assemble a more culturally diverse work force, and this should not be underestimated. While we have not reached the stage of the US, where lack of diversity in hiring attracts sanctions (moral and legal), it is possible that the issue will arise in Australia. Companies whose staff profile is so "Anglo" that it looks like the cast of Neighbours might do well to consider the advantages of diversity.

I'm not suggesting that employers hire people who don't meet their needs or don't come up to scratch. What I am saying is that, guided by human resource management leadership, employers who may not have considered international graduates should give some thought to what they can offer. Secondly, industry needs to work more closely with universities, in innovative ways, to help us get over this problem of graduates (local and international) not being as job-ready and employable as they need to be. It seems to me that human resource managers are extremely well-placed to work with universities to make a major contribution in this regard.

Professor Paul Rodan [BA(Hons) WAust, MA Qld, PhD Monash] is the Director of the Intercultural Education Research Institute at CQUniversity Australia. This is an excerpt from a presentation that Paul will make at  the Australian Human Resources Institute's 2008 Leadership Conference in Perth on September 25.