At first glance, today’s labor market appears contradictory.
Headlines continue to report layoffs, hiring freezes, and economic uncertainty. Yet in boardrooms, executive meetings, and workforce planning discussions, a different concern persists: finding and retaining qualified talent remains difficult.
Employers are not simply looking for more candidates. They are looking for candidates who can navigate ambiguity, collaborate across teams, adapt to rapid technological change, leverage AI effectively, and exercise sound judgment in increasingly complex environments.
In other words, while talent remains abundant, job-ready talent often feels scarce.
What Employers Are Really Saying
Recent findings from ManpowerGroup’s Experis Global Tech Talent Outlook show that 73% of Tech & IT Services employers report difficulty finding skilled talent.
Yet when we look at the most in-demand human skills, an interesting pattern emerges:
Communication, Collaboration & Teamwork (41%)
Professionalism & Work Ethic (37%)
Adaptability & Willingness to Learn (34%)
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (31%)
Digital Literacy (23%)
Notice something important.
The top skills employers struggle to find are not primarily technical.
They are the very skills many international students often struggle to demonstrate—not because they lack capability, but because they are simultaneously navigating cultural differences, language confidence, networking norms, professional communication expectations, workplace etiquette, and team dynamics in a new culture.
These capabilities are not developed through a single course or workshop. They emerge through repeated experiences, coaching, mentoring, reflection, and opportunities to practice across the student journey.
This challenge has become significant enough that many employers are no longer treating talent development as someone else’s responsibility. Increasingly, organizations are investing directly in apprenticeships, work-based learning, employer-sponsored education programs, and university partnerships to help shape the talent they need.
In a recent Forbes article, “Corporate America Is Rewriting Higher Ed’s Talent Contract,” Dr. Jason Wingard—Senior Advisor at Harvard University, author of The Great Skills Gap, and a leading voice on the future of work and talent development—describes this shift as a new “Talent Compact” between employers, higher education, and government.
His argument is compelling: employers are moving from being passive consumers of talent to active co-creators of it.
However, as I reflected on this trend through the lens of international student career success, I found myself asking a different question:
If employer partnerships are becoming stronger, why do so many institutions still struggle to translate those partnerships into meaningful career outcomes for international students?
The answer may have less to do with employer engagement and more to do with what happens inside our institutions.
Employer Access Is Necessary—But Not Sufficient
Across higher education, institutions are investing significant effort into strengthening relationships with employers.
Career fairs are expanding. Internship programs are growing. Industry advisory boards are becoming more common. Work-integrated learning is receiving renewed attention.
These efforts matter.
For international students in particular, access to employers can make a meaningful difference in helping them understand workplace expectations, gain practical experience, and navigate career opportunities in the United States.
But access is only one part of the equation.
For many domestic students, the pathway from classroom to career is relatively straightforward. For international students, the journey often includes additional layers of complexity.
Students must navigate immigration regulations, cultural adaptation, professional communication norms, networking expectations, internship requirements, employment authorization processes, and employer perceptions about international hiring.
Success depends on much more than securing an interview.
It requires coordinated support across multiple stages of the student experience—from recruitment and enrollment to academic success, career development, practical training opportunities, and post-graduation employment.
Students experience this process as one continuous journey.
Institutions often manage it through separate departments.
The Hidden Challenge: Institutional Silos
Across our work with higher education professionals from institutions including Penn State, the University at Albany, and Northern Arizona University, a consistent pattern emerged.
Professionals were deeply committed to international student success, yet many had limited visibility into how other departments influenced the student journey.
One participant captured the challenge candidly:
“We work with so many students each year, it’s easy to group everyone together, no matter their background, without additional consideration of cultural background and where their mindset might be.”
That reflection resonated with a broader theme that surfaced across institutions: supporting international students requires more than individual awareness—it requires institutional alignment.
As another participant observed:
“I do not think a majority of faculty and staff understand the nuances that international students face.”
Another added:
“We are a large institution, and no administrator, faculty member, or staff member knows every resource available across campus.”
Together, these reflections point to a challenge many institutions face.
No single office owns international student career success. Career Services, International Student Services, faculty, admissions, employer relations, alumni, and student affairs each contribute an essential piece of the student experience.
The challenge is not a lack of commitment.
The challenge is coordination.
An institution may have strong employer partnerships, dedicated advisors, engaged faculty, and robust student programming. Yet students can still experience confusion when information, expectations, and support are not aligned across functions.
As employers become more involved in talent development, the need for internal institutional alignment becomes even more important.
Cross-campus collaboration does not mean every office does the same work. Rather, it requires a shared understanding of the student journey, clear referral pathways, common language around career readiness, and regular opportunities for professionals across functions to learn from one another.
For employers, this matters as well. When institutions operate as coordinated ecosystems, students are better prepared to demonstrate the communication, adaptability, professionalism, and problem-solving skills employers consistently say they need.
In that sense, cross-campus collaboration is not simply an internal institutional issue.
It is part of the talent development process itself.
A Small Shift With Big Implications
At both Penn State and University at Albany, one of the most valuable outcomes was not the creation of a new program.
Instead, participants reported a stronger understanding of the roles, challenges, and priorities of colleagues across departments.
As professionals developed a shared language around international student success, conversations became more productive and opportunities for collaboration became easier to identify.
While these efforts are still evolving, they suggest that improving outcomes may not always require new resources.
Sometimes it begins with helping existing stakeholders better understand how their work connects across the student lifecycle.
The Missing Link Between Opportunity and Outcome
Dr. Wingard argues that Corporate America is rewriting the talent contract.
He is right.
Employers are becoming more active participants in talent development. Universities are being asked to demonstrate clearer outcomes. Students and families increasingly expect evidence that education leads to opportunity.
These changes are reshaping higher education.
But for international students, there may be an additional lesson.
Employers increasingly understand that talent development cannot begin on a student’s first day of work.
The question for higher education is whether institutions are organized to support that same reality.
If employers are becoming co-creators of talent, universities must become better integrators of talent development.
Employer partnerships may open the door for international students.
Institutional alignment is what enables them to walk through it.
Because international students do not experience admissions, advising, immigration support, career services, employer engagement, and alumni relations as separate functions.
They experience one university.
The institutions that will lead the next era of international student success may not be those with the largest career fairs or the greatest number of employer partnerships.
They may be the institutions that function as connected ecosystems—where every office understands its role in developing globally ready talent.
Author
Kwan Segal is the founder of ICAway and creator of iCEP. She helps universities align their existing capacity to improve international student career outcomes through culturally responsive campus practices.
References
Wingard, J. (2026, June 2). Corporate America Is Rewriting Higher Ed’s Talent Contract. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2026/06/02/corporate-america-is-rewriting-higher-eds-talent-contract/
ManpowerGroup. (2026). Q2 2026 ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey and Experis Tech Talent Outlook Global Findings. Retrieved from https://www.manpowergroup.com/en/insights/q2-2026-manpowergroup-employment-outlook-survey and https://www.manpowergroup.com/en/insights/report/q2-2026-experis-tech-talent-outlook
