Ravi Raj

Abstract: Students and parents increasingly ask what a global program does for a career. This session reframes mobility as a deliberate portfolio for employability, in which project-based learning and internships sit alongside faculty-led study tours rather than competing with them. Drawing on the high-impact-practices research and the work-integrated-learning evidence base — much of it Australian — it examines what actually develops graduate capability: authentic projects with real stakes, well-matched host partnerships, structured supervision, and assessment tied to named career competencies rather than vague "global exposure." The panel maps how each format contributes distinct value: study tours for perspective and networks, projects for applied problem-solving, internships for sustained professional practice. Insights are drawn from multi-country internship and project-based programs viewed from the collaborative-provider and institutional sides, balanced with sector evidence and other cases rather than any single institution's results. Participants leave able to apply a career-outcomes lens to their own program or portfolio, analyse how formats complement one another, and evaluate the alignment between program activities and the competencies employers and students say they need. The throughline stays human: AI may screen and match, but mentorship, reflection and authentic relationships are what convert experience into employability and confidence. Learning objectives: - Describe how high-impact practices relate to graduate employability. - Explain the design features of effective work-integrated and project-based learning. - Apply a career-outcomes lens to a program or portfolio. - Analyse how internship and project-based formats complement faculty-led study tours. - Evaluate the alignment between program activities and targeted career competencies. Target audience: Careers and employability staff; work-integrated-learning and internship coordinators; program designers; faculty and mobility teams aligning global programs with graduate outcomes, industry demand and project-based or internship formats

Abstract: International mobility delivers real developmental value — and carries a real environmental and ethical footprint. This session helps practitioners hold both truths at once and design programs that are demonstrably more sustainable, not just rhetorically so. It introduces the recognised competencies in education for sustainable development and the SDG learning-objectives framework, then applies them to the concrete choices program teams make: destination and routing, duration and frequency, host-community benefit, supply-chain decisions, and how sustainability outcomes are evidenced rather than assumed. The panel weighs the published tension between the carbon cost of student mobility and its learning gains, and explores models — "fewer, deeper, longer," regional and intra-Asia routing, and genuine community partnership — that improve the balance. Insights are drawn from a portfolio of SDG-aligned experiential programs across the Asia-Pacific, examined from the collaborative-provider and institutional perspectives and balanced with sector evidence and other cases, with no single institution positioned as exemplar. Participants leave with a practical set of criteria to assess and strengthen the sustainability and ethics of their own mobility offerings, and language to defend those choices to leadership and students. Sustainability here is treated as a design discipline and an ethic of care toward host communities and the planet. Learning objectives: - Describe the key sustainability competencies relevant to global program design. - Explain the environmental and ethical tensions inherent in international mobility. - Apply an SDG-aligned lens to a short-term program concept. - Compare program models on their sustainability and community-benefit trade-offs. - Evaluate sustainability claims in mobility programs against recognised frameworks. Target audience: Partnerships and mobility staff; program designers; sustainability and SDG leads; faculty and providers interested in education for sustainable development, ethical host-community engagement and the footprint of student mobility