Intercultural Competences for You Erasmus Project

Project Title

Intercultural Competences for You

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Context of the project
As a consequence of globalisation the living circumstances and working situation for young adults in Europe are changing drastically. The environment young people live in has increasingly become more multicultural. This development has been accelerated through the mass migration to Europe in the last years. In this changing environment intercultural skills within a lifelong learning perspective are essential to cope with everyday situations as well as work related ones. Moreover, it is expected that young people are willing to move within the European market to find employment or training. To be prepared for this challenge enhanced intercultural skills are necessary.

Project’s objectives
Working in this project allows students to get to know and be able to use relevant tools to be prepared for the European world of work. The objectives of this project are to prepare students for this challenge by learning how to learn such skills on their own and thereby improve their social civic competences, sense of initiative etc. which will help them to successfully apply for a place of training or employment and in their future work place. To achieve this we will mainly use student-centred leraning methods.
The project will use English as a lingua franca. This project offers students and teachers the chance to work together and the possibility of a direct contact to people of other nations on various levels. On the one hand students work together on the content of the project and teachers improve their pedagogical skills. On the other hand a wider public will be informed through publications, presentations, exhibitions and workshops resulting from the project work and benefit through the produced material which will be available for everybody. This will increase awareness for the topic and motivation to improve intercultural skills as well as provide tools to reach this aim. The contacts established through the international meetings and cooperation will motivate students to think in a European and global perspective. Working in international groups allows students and teachers to share ideas, knowledge and best practise and reinforces already existing networks on a transnational level. Additionally, all participants will improve their language skills and also enhance the basic skill of literacy especially in a foreign language. The project will improve key competences and basic competences of everyone involved.

Activities that have taken place
At the start of the project a logo contest took place in all five school and a common logo was chosen. An online questionnaire, which was devised during the first teacher training, tested students’ intercultural skills to find our the knowledge of the students. During the seven international project meetings students analysed their respective survey, identified their needs and then developed relevant training modules, which are accessible to anyone as an online tool and on the project website. Two short-term joint staff training events took place, the first one set up the TwinSpace are and dealt with the usage of eTwinning. The second one focused on the implementation of digital teaching tools and showed best practice examples.

Project’s results
Firstly, the students gained knowledge about intercultural competences on a theoretical level as the students identified the relevant training needs by analyzing the result of the ICU survey. Secondly, by reflecting on the working process during the international group work the students gained practical knowledge about intercultural competences and could easily identify challenges of intercultural communication and ways of dealing with these challenges on a personal level.
Within the project English was used as lingua franca. As a consequence the students were able to increase their knowledge and competences of English in various fields (e.g. taking part in discussions within their international project groups). The students developed their IT skills by using different digital formats for their training modules as well as their presentation skills by using different forms of presenting their results . The teachers enhanced their IT and pedagogical skills by taking part in the teacher training events and getting to know various digital learning tools (eTwinning, plickers etc.), through best practise examples. The homepage contains the various results of the project.

Expected longer-terms benefits
The expected longer-terms benefits of this project are to prepare students for the European world of work by learning how to learn such skills on their own and thereby improve their social civic competences, sense of initiative etc. which will help them to successfully apply for a place of training or employment and in their future work place. Furthermore, students are aware of intercultural differences and know how to deal with them.

Project Website

http://www.icu-erasmusplus.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 122339,66 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lippe-Berufskolleg des Kreises Soest in Lippstadt & Country: DE

Project Partners

• ISTITUTO FANTONI-CLUSONE
• International Business College
• SOLSKI CENTER KRANJ
• IES LEONARDO DA VINCI