Promoting mindful encounters through intercultural competence and experience Erasmus Project

Project Title

Promoting mindful encounters through intercultural competence and experience

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

This project is based on the conviction that intercultural learning and training programmes through transnational cooperation between students, teachers, and SMEs are an accessible way to enhance transversal capabilities and intercultural competences. It aims to develop a holistic process of learning, teaching, and training through the integration of the cognitive (knowledge-based), metacognitive (perception-based), motivational (emotion-based), and behavioural capabilities (verbal and non-verbal) of intercultural competence.
This project is based on a transnational approach which aims to develop a four-tiered model of an online learning and training platform to promote students, teachers, and SMEs to participate in an all-inclusive and iterative process of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting in various cultural frameworks. The transnational approach ensures the development of an authentic resource pool of transversal capabilities and facilitates an enhanced level of cultural awareness.
It is based on the methodology of experiential learning and training which undoubtedly leads to heightened personal and social competences, and better employability, and highlights that specific tangible experiences are essential for reflective observations which become the basis for actively practicing the acquired transversal skills in diverse cultural environments.
The estimated number of direct target groups is 246, which includes 168 students, 63 teachers, and 15 SMEs. These target groups will be trained to eliminate rigorous dependence on culturally-bound thinking, to monitor cultural assumptions and adjust mental models, and to exhibit appropriate transversal capabilities to improve employability and mindfulness across diverse cultures and situational contexts. The total number of estimated indirect beneficiaries is 39 765, which involves 6,300 first year students; 590 teachers, and 32875 from SMEs across the partner regions or countries.
The activities of the project are divided into six work packages, which include the PROMINENCE Interactive, the interactive on-line learning and training platform to develop a versatile pool of resources to deliver considerable insights into culture-specific interactions in diverse situational contexts through a wide-scale of interactive tools; the on-line curriculum to provide the detailed description of the course; resource materials; assessment tools; requirements; policies and procedures; and resource materials; surveys reports to measure the transversal capabilities of the target groups; articles to professional journals to raise awareness about the positive benefits of intercultural learning and training programmes through transnational cooperation; the E-book as a learning tool to help target groups to reinforce cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and behavioural capabilities of intercultural competence; and the international conference to introduce the project, its outcomes and conclusions to a wide range of audience, including students, teachers from each partner university, SMEs, public authorities, and the general public.
There will be three intensive programmes which will revolve around the thematic topics of Different Worlds, Different Languages: Getting to Grips with Cultural Diversity; Managing and Leading in Different Cultures; Practicing Cultural and Emotional Intelligence across Cultures. These aim to help students acquire universal and work-related transversal capabilities through real-life scenarios and experiences which help them:
Students, teachers, SMEs and other indirect beneficiaries will learn to negotiate a shared meaning based on culture-bound differences and develop all-inclusive intercultural competences. They will learn how to evaluate intercultural competencies important for succeeding in the global context. These competences will embrace those core skills which are a prerequisite for individuals to lead, strategize, organize and implement strategy in a global and intercultural context.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 251238,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

DEBRECENI EGYETEM & Country: HU

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE SAVOIE MONT BLANC
• Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Aschaffenburg
• EKONOMICKA UNIVERZITA V BRATISLAVE
• UNIWERSYTET EKONOMICZNY W KATOWICACH
• SEINAJOEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• IKONOMICHESKI UNIVERSITET – VARNA