When Flavia Benedito, a language tutor educated in Brazil, immigrated to the United States a few years ago, she applied for several positions to no avail. With a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Language and Secretarial Science from Universidade do Sagrado Coracao, and a master's degree in International Business from Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba, the problem wasn't that Benedito wasn't qualified for these jobs.
"[M]y education or work experience was not often understood," says Benedito, illustrating that U.S. employers often don't know the U.S. equivalent of foreign degrees, and don't know how to verify that the documents are authentic.
And Benedito isn't the only one this is happening to; many non-U.S. educated job seekers find themselves in the same position.
After consulting many career books and websites to find a better way to present her credentials, Benedito decided to have her credentials evaluated by World Education Services (WES), a not-for-profit organization with 35 years of experience evaluating international credentials.
Credential evaluations can help put international job seekers on equal footing with candidates educated in the U.S. We spoke with Mariam Assefa, Executive Director of WES, about international recruitment in academia and how credential evaluations can help. Assefa says it's beneficial for job seekers to be prepared with a credential evaluation because "an unknown degree might set you back." Employers have to sort through countless applicants, and they need to have a way of sorting them out. A qualified candidate could be ruled out simply because the personnel office isn't familiar with the applicant's degree.
It's also important for job seekers to understand their own credentials. Many candidates educated outside of the U.S. underestimate the value of their qualifications, or falsely assume that their degrees lose all value once they are in the U.S.
"We always encourage people to know the value of what you have," says Assefa. "You might be able to apply for a lot of jobs that you thought were out of reach."
Not only do credential evaluations explain the equivalency of non-U.S. degrees, but they also confirm the legitimacy of degrees and verify that the degree-granting institution is recognized, both common questions employers ask Assefa. According to Assefa, credential evaluations are becoming increasingly important to employers, who want to "make sure every 'i' is dotted and every 't' is crossed."
"The problem is not that candidates educated outside the U.S. present more questionable credentials, it is rather that most employers in the U.S. don't know how to go about verifying foreign documents," Assefa says. "When it comes to foreign schools, employers don't know the first thing about them. That's where our service comes in handy because we have the resources and the expertise to do that type of verification."
With faculty positions in particular, Assefa noticed that employers want to verify authenticity instead of determining a U.S. equivalency. "They don't come to check if it's a Ph.D. -- they know that. They're checking that the degree is authentic."
The other common question employers ask Assefa is whether an institution is "recognized." Does it exist? And if it does, is it recognized in its home jurisdiction as a degree-granting institution? The U.S. has an accreditation system that works independently from government. In almost every other country, these rules and standards are set by the national government, and these standards differ from country to country. This can make it difficult to find out if an institution is recognized. However, credential evaluators have an advantage in this area since most have extensive knowledge of education in various countries.
So how does the evaluation process work? Most credential evaluation services offer several types of evaluations. The basic evaluation is usually sufficient for employers' needs, as it identifies and describes each diploma or certificate and provides an equivalency for each.
The next step is for either the applicant or the evaluation company to contact the foreign university to obtain documents such as diplomas, degree certificates, and transcripts (document requirements vary depending on country of education). According to Assefa, this can be the most time-consuming part of the process.
"The key here is obtaining the documents," says Assefa. "There's not a rule as to how long it takes to receive a formal reply from the institution, it depends on the country." Once all documents have been received, it generally takes about a week to complete the evaluation.
For Benedito, the process took two months in total. "I had trouble having my undergraduate degree sent from my university. They held up the process." But once that was received, the process was completed in about three days.
"I think it's important to have an evaluation if you are foreign trained for school and work," says Benedito, who felt she had worked hard for her degree in Brazil. With her credential evaluation, she was able to gain a better understanding of what her degree was equivalent to in the U.S.
"When I received my evaluation, I felt almost vindicated," says Benedito. "My evaluation helped to restore some of the confidence that I felt I was beginning to lose while adjusting to my new American identity."
For more information and a list of other credential evaluation services, visit the HigherEdJobs.com Career Tools section (http://www.higheredjobs.com/career/international.cfm). All credential evaluators listed are members of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). NACES is an association of private foreign educational credential evaluation services that is committed to formulating and maintaining ethical standards in the field of foreign educational evaluation.
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