Women from all over the world experience significant challenges restarting their careers following a move outside their home country. These difficulties, particularly in the context of dual career couples, have been recognized by foreign governments responsible for sending diplomats and other staff to work at posts around the world. In addition, a number of multinational companies have developed spousal support programs as part of corporate relocation packages. At the same time, little, if any, research has been conducted exploring the professional stumbling blocks experienced by private citizen women of many different nationalities without access to formalized support programs sponsored by foreign governments and the corporate sector in host countries overseas.

Professional challenges, career change, and career exploration, have also been difficult areas to negotiate by women living outside their home countries as long-term residents. In today's global work environment, continuing education and learning have taken on a new significance that applies to all expatriate women living around the globe. In this context, women launching careers abroad as well as more seasoned professionals and/or entrepreneurs need to stay current with what is referred to as “workforce technology skills”, i.e., computer programs and multimedia applications. It's fair to say these technology-based skills represent an essential element in a woman's career toolkit for private sector, philanthropic, and entrepreneurial work abroad.


E-Learning boosts career in Venezuela

My motivation to formally explore E-learning in the context of a U.S. Master's program, came about as the result of my personal experience restarting my career following a move to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1993. In the course of researching professional opportunities in Venezuela, I confronted a number of stumbling-blocks. Through my participation in Caracas-based women's support organizations, I observed other expatriate women were struggling with similar issues and frustrations.

A number of women, including myself, discovered we had gaps with respect to our professional skills in the local environment. For example, as someone with a corporate background, I was interested to research business start-up entrepreneurial opportunities, and I found I lacked particular skills. As the culture of adult continuing education was very narrow in Venezuela and not geared to the needs of expatriate women, I turned to the internet to fulfill my learning requirements.

Until the mid 1990's, however, I was limited to dial-up internet access in Venezuela and this made my experience of online learning difficult and cumbersome. In addition, I found it difficult to work with the vast resources of the web to identify appropriate E-Learning educational opportunities to meet my needs. Most, if not all, E-learning informational resources for the expatriate community have been developed for women affiliated with the foreign Embassy community and/or for women eligible for dual career support programs in conjunction with multinational companies. As a private citizen American woman living in Venezuela, it fell upon my shoulders to research courses, tutorials, seminars, etc. to meet my educational needs.

Based upon my experience, E-learning can play a very important role with respect to career management from abroad. In my case, E-learning has made it possible for me to access a wide variety of educational opportunities not available on a local basis in Venezuela, enabled me to stay current with prevailing trends in my field, and afforded me the opportunity to explore new career interests from abroad. In addition, E-learning computer training has made it possible for me to keep my computer skills up-to-date, and to learn new multimedia applications. Very importantly, I have been able to address my educational needs from abroad at little or no cost by relying upon E-learning educational and training opportunities available from a wide variety of U.S. and global providers including NGO's, multilateral institutions, U.S. nonprofit sector organizations, international media companies, and the U.S. Federal Government, among others.

Don't forget E-learning is a very dynamic field and rapid advancements in internet technology are making the online learning experience both enjoyable and worthwhile. Sign up for news alerts, newsletters, etc. from training providers to stay current with the introduction of new courses, webinars, tutorials, etc. Be open to online training targeted at other groups such as college students. Regardless of the target audience, the learning content may be useful to you. Many courses and tutorials provide ample opportunities for interaction with instructors and other participants – don't forget this networking opportunity! E-Learning is FUN! A chance to expand your universe of knowledge and contacts worldwide. Author: Leila Heron has served as the volunteer Country Contact for American Citizens Abroad (ACA) in Venezuela since 1995, and has represented ACA's interests in other Latin American countries on an ad hoc basis. Currently based in Panama, Leila is working on developing E-Learning resources for the benefit of expat women around the world. Feel free to contact her at leilaheron@hotmail.com for more information on her e-learning informational resources. In addition, she is contributing her expertise on living overseas to a project sponsored by BoomersTV (http://www.boomerstv.com). To find out more about Leila's research and resources, please contact her via leilaheron@hotmail.com

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