ABSTRACT
This chapter presents fresh insights on the perceived benefits of outbound mobility experiences (OMEs) to employability, from the perspectives of past participants in OMEs and the employers of new graduates. OME is widely associated with the development of professionally relevant skills and dispositions, and universities market such programs, promising they will provide participants with a “competitive edge” in a tightening graduate job market. Some universities are beginning to develop and offer formal programs to support student learning through OME, such programs need to be evaluated and improved through action research cycles. Employers were asked about what they generally looked for in new graduates and specifically about their perceptions of OMEs in relation to graduate employability. Yet, the benefits of international experience to employers and to new graduates tend to be assumed rather than understood. Employers, too, unanimously saw personal growth as an outcome of OME, although the degree that it was valued in relation to employability differed between employers.
