Continuing your personal and professional development

Taking time to acknowledge and adjust to these changes is important and will help with any feelings of reverse culture shock. Focus on the positive aspects of being back home, such as seeing family, friends, and work colleagues, sharing your stories of living and studying in the UK, and rediscovering your local area and home country. If there are changes you are concerned about, you may wish to reach out to family and friends and let them know your concerns so they can support you.

Remember to take things one step at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed or pressured and know that you are not alone. Maintaining your global connections with fellow students and Commonwealth Scholars you met during your time in the UK will also help during this period as many will be going through the same adjustment.

The UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) has published a useful guide and tips to support international students who may be experiencing reverse culture shock following their studies in the UK. You can access these resources on the UKCISA website. Your UK university International Office, Alumni Office, and Students Unions may also provide advice and resources, so do check their webpages or reach out for support.

Build your intercultural communication skills

• • • The online course, Communicating Across Cultures, to boost your intercultural communication skills and better understand how to behave in multicultural and multilingual situations.
    • Teamwork is a key competency in all job roles at all levels of employment. Whether working with colleagues, external stakeholders, or donors, understanding your role and the diversity of these different teams is key to successful teamwork. Working in diverse teams, will introduce you to the value of teamwork, team roles, and how to market your experience to employers.

Explore the potential of entrepreneurship and social enterprises

You may be interested in starting your own business or social enterprise to advocate for positive economic and social change.

• • • Entrepreneurship- from ideas to reality uses case studies and practical advice from real entrepreneurs to take you through key decisions to building a business.
    • Social Enterprise UK have developed a range of resources to support those looking to start social enterprise.
    • Expert Impact offers advice and mentoring from successful entrepreneurs to those looking to start their own social enterprise.

Some of the ways you can start and continue to be an effective ally are listed below:

• • • Listen actively to the experiences, perspectives and needs of those you are supporting.
    • Educate yourself. Don’t expect marginalised or underrepresented groups to be responsible for your learning. Personal, lifelong education is key to being an effective ally.
    • Learn, unlearn, re-learn, and evaluate your understanding on the challenges and issues marginalised and underrepresented groups face. You may uncover biases and misconceptions which you weren’t aware you held.
    • Challenge and/or report discrimination and inappropriate behaviour, if it is safe to do so. Whilst it may be hard to do this, it is even harder for those experiencing discrimination.
    • Create space for dialogue and ensure all those participating feel heard and respected.
    • Remember to be an ally with others and not for them. Your actions should support their needs, not what you think their needs are.

Supporting women leaders

The following groups and organisations have been recommended by Commonwealth Alumni as useful resources to support female alumni in achieving their potential and becoming future leaders.

• Girls for Girls helps young women develop the courage, vision and skills to take on leadership
• TheBoardroom Africa is the largest regional network of female executives in Africa and represents over 2,500 executive women from more than 65 countries with work in or focused on Africa
• Female Future Program supports female talent in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to participate in a leadership and boardroom competence development program created by the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO)
• Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is the first international forum to unite eminent women scientists from low income and high income countries with the objective of strengthening their role in the development process and promoting their representation in scientific and technological leadership
• WISCAR (Women In Successful Careers) is a non-governmental organisation set up in 2008 to assist professional career women in achieving their full potential.
• ShEquity seeks to provide smart and sustainable investments for African female entrepreneurs and innovators to drive inclusive socio-economic growth. They facilitate access to a pool of de-risked deals to investors and empower female entrepreneurs with financial resources and operational support needed to unlock their full potential.
• Powerful Women and the Principles of Feminist Transformational Leadership: Explore transformative leadership strategies from a feminist perspective. Guided by experts in gender and development studies, this three-week FutureLearn course developed by the University of the West Indies will introduce you to feminist transformational leadership theory and practice.
• AfriProspect connects African innovators with global markets to enable sustainable female-led startups to grow and scale their businesses.