Futureproof Your Career

Friday, March 21, 2025

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM US EST

Location: Willow Centre and West, Mezzanine level

Session Leader(s)

Devin Foxall

VP for Enrollment
The School for Field Studies
Barrington, New Hampshire, United States

Slides

Presenter(s)

Monya Lemery (she/her/hers)

Director of Study Abroad and International Student Services
Southwestern University
Georgetown, Texas, United States
Ramona Kirsch

Director, Global Learning
Hollins University, United States
Whitney Longnecker

Director of Study Abroad
Texas Tech University

This session explores the post-COVID hiring landscape as a natural experiment to understand evolving workforce demands. By analyzing job descriptions from 2019 to 2025, participants will gain insights into shifting skill requirements. A poll of EA colleagues will reveal critical skill gaps and hard-to-fill roles. The session also addresses balancing technological proficiency, like AI management, with essential human skills needed to support diverse populations in a post-pandemic world.

Learning Objectives:

Analyze Shifts in Workforce Requirements: Identify and evaluate the changes in required and recommended skills in job descriptions from 2019 to 2025, understanding how these shifts reflect the evolving demands of the post-COVID job market. Account for the change in worker profile, often hiring team members that don’t plan to spend their whole career within Education Abroad or Higher Education in general.
Identify Skill Gaps in the Current Workforce: Survey and synthesize insights from EA colleagues to determine which critical skills are currently lacking in the workforce and which roles are hardest to fill, helping prospective employees focus their development on in-demand skills. Identify ways to build skills for team members that lead to opportunities for promotion and advance within the field of Education Abroad and the workforce in general.
Balance Technological and Human Skills: Critically assess the need for balancing technical skills, such as managing AI technologies, with interpersonal skills necessary for working with diverse populations and aiding students in their post-COVID resocialization.