Project

InterMobil

Intercultural competence training for SMEs

 

Mobility is part of the flexibility considered important for the European labour force. The long year practice of EU mobilities has resulted in generating a common knowledge pool focused on the learners who are going to the new country and their preparation for that.

The hosting SMEs are also facing the intercultural challenge, however as they are placed in their natural country there are no actions to prepare themfor the encounter with different culture. Companies working in this field expressed interest in having some guidelines or tools which can prepare them not only for the practical implementation of the mobility but also for the necessary soft skills such as intercultural competences.

InterMobil aims to create a more favourable environment for youth exchanges and mobility programmes in the field of VET and Labour Market placements.

Project partners
  • EuroPartnership Agency Ltd – United Kingdom
  • European Center For Quality Ltd. – Bulgaria
  • FH JOANNEUM – University of Applied Sciences – Austria
  • LUISS Business School – Italy
  • International Consulting and Mobility Agency INCOMA - Spain
  • Associação Intercultural Amigos da Mobilidade – Portugal
The project will
  • develop an efficient intercultural training in view of the challenges youth mobility faces from the practice, training, research and employer’s perspectives;
  • remove the obstacles to successful youth mobility due to intercultural differences and misunderstanding;
  • strengthen the position of intercultural competences in EU youth mobilities programmes as tool to maximize the benefits of the mobility.
The project addresses different actors involved in EU mobilities
  • SMEs and similar organizations hosting mobilities, intermediaries facilitating EU mobilities and EU mobilities sending organizations;
  • Learners that are involved in EU mobilities;
  • EU mobilities networks, VET institutions and VET system in EU countries. In a broader sense SMEs working with international partners and SMEs employing diverse workforce can also be regarded as beneficiaries of project results.
Expected outcomes
  • Learning content – a training textbook with 9 different modules on intercultural interaction incl. topics like host country culture, culture shock, intercultural communication – language & paralanguage, conflict management and de-escalation, specifics of intercultural counselling and organisations, etc.
  • Handbook for SMEs – a short focused methodological document that will guide SMEs how to use the Learning content materials. It will comprise the most important tips and will also function as a teaser to read the full content.
  • InterMobil website – it will comprise all developed learning materials, the Handbook for SMEs, useful links to other projects or sites with similar content and other interesting materials on intercultural communication
  • Prototype workshops – organised in the second project year to test the developedLearning content with target groups’ representatives and to gather their feedback on further improving the training materials.
  • Conferences – organised in the last quarter of the project to present and promote InterMobil final outputs to the general audience and all stakeholders

All materials will be available in six languages: EN, DE, IT, BG, ES, PT