Global Skills: Articulating the International Studies Skillset and its Value

While the popularity of international studies as a discipline reflects the attractiveness of the field of study and its utility in an age of globalization, students of international studies can, like many social science and humanities students, struggle to articulate the suite of skills and competencies that they have developed during their tertiary level studies. Although concepts such as “soft skills”, “enterprise skills” and “21st century skills” have been of use, we argue that “global skills” as outlined by Douglas Bourn is a more comprehensive articulation of the international studies skill and competency set. In this collaborative article, we 1) describe the field of international studies and its virtues; 2) outline the problem of arts students’ difficulty in articulating their skillset and professional value; 3) introduce Bourn’s concept of “global skills”; 4) contribute to the concept of “global skills” by elaborating on the need for critical self-reflection of one’s subject position and by outlining the value of systems thinking; 5) provide a reflective case study that illustrates how the global skills and the international studies skillset was highly valuable for one graduate’s cross-cultural engagement; and then conclude with final remarks on the value of international studies per se.