Developing Interculturally Competent Graduates: Meeting Employer Needs in Europe

Research has highlighted the importance of intercultural competencies in higher education graduates to boost their employability with national and international employers. Yet, little is known about whether current graduates in Europe meet employer needs with respect to such competencies and how higher education institutions in Europe can strengthen their graduates’ employability by offering a curriculum that supports the development of such competencies. We bridge this gap by studying the supply and demand of intercultural competencies from the perspectives of students and employers in Europe. We draw on a cross-national study of 102 interviews with students and employers in the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Turkey. We report on the key intercultural challenges faced by students and employers and on the intercultural competencies that graduates need to develop in future to meet industry needs. We offer a curriculum map through which higher education institutions can develop students’ intercultural competencies to enable them to be active professionals in an increasingly intercultural employment world.