Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Notting Hill, VIC, Australia.
J Hum Nutr Diet. 2024 Oct;37(5):1374-1388. doi: 10.1111/jhn.13351. Epub 2024 Jul 16.
Interest in the role of employability in student-dietitian transitions is increasing. However, little is known about the cross-cultural transition-to-work experience of Australian-trained dietetic graduates of international backgrounds, as well as strategies to optimise work-readiness. The present study aimed to explore graduates' career narratives and identify employability capitals that enabled successful transitions to work.
A qualitative interpretive approach was employed via a cultural lens. Eighteen participants from five Asian countries who had graduated from an Australian university within 3-15 years, with work experience in Australia or in their respective home countries, took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was performed, guided by the graduate capitals based approach.
Transition-to-work was dynamic and non-linear; four themes and 12 subthemes identified: (1) upon graduation, participants felt ambivalent about their decision to either stay in Australia or return home, influenced by graduate visa restrictions, and individual perceptions of their ability to mobilise cultural strengths to gain employment; (2) to get a foot in the door, participants demonstrated resilience, embraced uncertainty and utilised social networks to increase employment opportunities in Australia and their home countries; (3) regardless of which country they worked, graduates reported struggling with their cross-cultural identities in the workplace; and (4) eventually, these graduates appreciated their ethnic capital, thrived in their work and extended a helping hand to their junior cross-cultural dietitians.
Initiatives facilitating connections to the host country and supporting cultural and ethnic capital development, along with ongoing research reviewing employability capital applications, will benefit cross-cultural dietetic graduates and the communities they potentially will serve.
人们对就业能力在学生营养师职业转变中的作用越来越感兴趣。然而，对于具有国际背景的澳大利亚培养的营养师毕业生的跨文化工作过渡经历以及优化工作准备的策略，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨毕业生的职业经历，并确定有助于成功过渡到工作的就业能力资本。
采用文化视角的定性解释方法。来自五个亚洲国家的 18 名参与者在澳大利亚的大学毕业 3-15 年，在澳大利亚或各自的祖国有工作经验，他们参加了深入的访谈。主题分析是根据基于毕业生资本的方法进行的。
工作过渡是动态和非线性的；确定了四个主题和 12 个子主题：（1）毕业后，参与者对留在澳大利亚还是返回原籍国的决定感到矛盾，这受到毕业生签证限制和个人对调动文化优势获得就业能力的能力的看法的影响；（2）为了获得一个机会，参与者表现出韧性，接受不确定性，并利用社交网络在澳大利亚和原籍国增加就业机会；（3）无论他们在哪个国家工作，毕业生都报告说在工作场所中挣扎于他们的跨文化身份；（4）最终，这些毕业生欣赏他们的族裔资本，在工作中茁壮成长，并向他们的初级跨文化营养师伸出援助之手。
促进与东道国联系以及支持文化和族裔资本发展的举措，以及对就业能力资本应用的持续研究，将使跨文化营养师毕业生及其潜在服务的社区受益。
