Career practitioners should use strengths-based lens for international students: Editorial

Instead of emphasizing deficits international students face as they transition into the Canadian workforce, career practitioners should use a strengths-based career development approach, write Candace Stewart-Smith, Jessie Eulenberg, and Dr Kathleen Clarke of Wilfrid Laurier University. The authors offer four strategies for career practitioners to consider. These recommendations include enhancing international student awareness of their unique assets and abilities, such as a global worldview, intercultural skills, and additional languages; tailoring support to the student’s intentions to stay in Canada, return home, or pursue further international study or travel; and teaching students about the norms of working in Canada. Finally, the authors argue that career practitioners must question their own worldviews and biases and reflect on how they can best support students. CERIC Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.