ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on a study that employed a narrative frames methodology to investigate the perceptions of international students regarding what they thought would make them more career ready upon graduation. Data are presented from 180 international students who were doing an undergraduate or graduate diploma qualification in a New Zealand vocational tertiary institution. The findings showed that international students faced linguistic and non-linguistic challenges, and perceived career readiness as investment in multiple forms of capital and active engagement in multiple communities of practice in the host country. Specifically, they perceived that they needed to develop human, cultural, psychological forms of capital and a range of capabilities before they could be recognised, perceived, and positioned as more career ready graduates. Career readiness largely depended on a range of factors including mastery of the discipline specific requirements, learning the multiple competencies of the academic and workplace communities, and acting effectively within various communities of practice. The chapter concludes that forms of capital are not mobilised unless international students agentively engage in their academic and workplace communities of practice.
