Determinants of Communication Competencies of International Graduates: An Exploration Using the Sociocultural Perspective

Abstract

Universities worldwide have made significant efforts to enhance graduate employability by embedding graduate attributes in teaching and learning programs. This initiative aims to enhance graduates’ employability skills such as communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. However, many studies have shown that the attributes that graduates learn at university cannot be directly transferred into employability skills. Instead, graduates must develop employability skills in their workplaces. This study utilises the sociocultural perspective as the theoretical framework from which to examine the factors that determine international graduates’ communication competencies in the workplace. This qualitative study which was conducted using 15 international graduates deployed in-depth interviews as the main data collection method. The findings reported that culturally diverse work environments and living and work experiences had profound impacts on the international graduates’ communication competencies in both their short- and long-term employment journeys. The findings imply that to enhance international graduates’ employability, universities, and industries must better collaborate so that students can learn communication skills in the labour market rather than at their universities.