Talent Deveopment Plan: Learn a Trade

"My story shows that although it is not easy to connect to the local community, it is also quite rewarding and therefore worth the effort to do so. You need to spend time on understanding why local people think and behave differently, respect their values and learn to be tolerant of differences. With the support of Success Mentors, I managed to have a good social life and so can you."

Miss. Liu,

Lawrenceville School,

New Jersey

Goals: On top of achieving a degree, students will learn a trade with which to earn their foothold in the job market. They will be able to work effectively in an internationally diverse team.

Do you know?

Phenomenon 1: Students may muddle through and graduate with a degree in four years, while they do not have the abilities to work in a diverse team with local Americans. They suffer from poor language skills, lack of knowledge in local culture and inadequate skills to handle conflicts with diverse others.

Risks: Students may live and become entrapped in a small circle of Chinese students and eventually become disconnected to American society.

Phenomenon 2: At the recommendations of their slacker friends, students may select classes that require minimum efforts to pass, or chose the simplest courses in order to graduate, while putting aside their career planning and skill developments.

Risks: Students may graduate with a degree, yet they are not well prepared for their career choices. The limited knowledge they learnt can hardly be put into use at work place.

Phenomenon 3: Graduate Schools and employers assess students against set standards in a holistic manner. They usually look beyond the academic records, and check out how students may action knowledge through practices. More and more Chinese employers also complain the value of returned oversea learners. Students need to work hard improving their employability.

Risks: Empirical evidences tend to suggest Chinese oversea learners may very likely get lost in a loosely managed environment. Without a clear goal in mind, many Chinese students do not know what they can do with their degrees, nor do they know how to make a living.

Conclusion: By learning a trade, not a degree, students will substantially improve their employability, adding weights to the sterling of their US degrees.

Our Solutions:

Student Project Portfolio, Student Developmental Report:

1. US Guidance Counselors help improve students' abilities to solve real world problems through hands-on, monthly mentoring programs.

2. Through quarterly students projects, Specialist Mentors will help students to foster behavioral changes, identify and build on their unique strengths, and develop skills that students can make a living on.

3. Student Developmental Reports summarize students' progress at a particular stage of developments, and through reflection and improvement programs, guide students to make better use of the resources at their disposal and achieve better results in the next semester.