ECILP – European Certificate for Intercultural Learning Professionals Erasmus Project

Project Title

ECILP – European Certificate for Intercultural Learning Professionals

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Recognition, transparency, certification

Project Summary

Organisations have become increasingly aware that multicultural societies and a globalized business world need interculturally competent individuals. Since the 1990ies, schools, universities, public services and companies have invested into intercultural (IC) learning interventions; recently, in 2011, the relevance of intercultural learning was stressed by the German Cultural Council. The ability to effectively and appropriately deal with intercultural interactions is routinely addressed in education and training in sectors including industry, universities, government, the health sector, and migration/refugee support centres. Intercultural competence has even been called a key competence of the 21st century. Concomitantly, more and more individuals and organisations including VET in Europe offer IC training. Yet despite these trends towards IC training/education, there are no generally accepted, evidence-based standards allowing clients, learners and service providers to tell the difference of an effective from an ineffective IC learning intervention.

Even though we see a clear and persistent growth in IC training measures over the past 4 decades, there are no quality standards that would be binding for all IC learning providers across European regions and countries, and that would enable these providers to seek accredited professional qualification. In no European country are occupational titles like intercultural trainer/coach protected. Clients and learners cannot tell whether the IC programs they invest into are based on up-to-date findings on training effectiveness; and IC service providers have no incentive to invest into an accredited professional education.

The project’s core aim is to enable recognition, transparency and comparability of qualifications and learning outcomes of IC service providers (i.e., IC trainers, advisors and coaches) through developing and establishing a framework of binding professional standards, regulations for the accreditation process and a self-assessment tool for IC providers. Such a framework will offer transparent, evidence-based, comprehensible and reliable guidelines for decision-making to clients, learners, IC service providers and institutions offering intercultural training qualifications. The regulations and self-assessment tool will provide information about the level of current qualification and guidance for achieving accreditation.

The main target group are VET trainers and VET providers already providing, or aiming to provide, professional intercultural services.

The results of the project will be elaborated to support its aim. Among others, there will be three Intellectual Outputs:
1) ECILP – Set of Standards for European Certificate for Intercultural Learning Professionals
2) GRR – Governance, Regulations and other Requirements for the ECILP Accreditation Process
3) ECILP online self-assessment and validation centre

Large impact is expected especially on intercultural learning professionals in the VET area. The project will provide clear and competent guidelines for how they can conduct their work at the highest possible professional standards; they can measure themselves in terms of these standards and try and close any gaps identified; they will witness and where possible contribute to an important critical assessment and dialogue about the quality of the work they do; they will be in a better position to decide about their next professional qualification steps and plan for it; and their confidence about being an intercultural professional is likely to increase considerably. The ECILP Set of Standards, and the structures and processes for accreditation, will give them a powerful tool to raise their qualifications, and to critically select between providers of intercultural train-the-trainer programs promising to do so.

Relevant impact we expect to see for clients, both the client organizations selecting intercultural services, and the direct participants/recipients of these services. Client organizations can use the output of the project as a benchmark of the quality they deserve and should demand, and so will be able to select from different providers those offering better, and more effective services. The direct participants/recipients will be able to benefit from better programs and more qualified providers, and both they and the purchasing organization of which they are members, will be protected from bad services.

Substantial impact is also expected on intercultural training agencies, for which it will be easier and vastly more cost-effective to select and bring together an effective team of (freelance) trainers. They do not need to devise their own selection criteria and interview each and every candidate trainer through lengthy assessment processes but can instead rely on the ECILP certificate.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 287720 Eur

Project Coordinator

SIETAR Deutschland & Country: DE

Project Partners

• STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM WSPIERANIA EDUKACJI I PRZEDSIEBIORCZOSCI
• STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT BRABANT
• assist Gesellschaft für Unternehmensberatung und Personalentwicklung mbH
• LABC S.R.L.
• I.B.I. Intercultural Business Improvement b.v.