Intellectual Output 4: Training Program for Intercultural Workers with Migrant Background
The Training Program for Intercultural Workers with Migrant Background will address 1.5 and second generation migrants with both theoretical and practical skills necessary for serving effectively as an intercultural worker. This output is directly related to the previous ones.
The course curriculum design will follow the development of O1, O2 and O3 and will be based on the findings of those intellectual outputs. The completion of the curriculum will be the base for the development of the training resources.
The main objective of the IO4 is to develop a holistic, innovative intercultural workers training programme and define a syllabus that is in line with ECVET and EQF.
The Training program will follow 3 main roadmaps:
1. New or revised methodologies/approaches, jointly designed by the project partners;
2. Transfer of particular skills to the target group, considered necessary to facilitate the creation of inclusive environments in an intercultural context;
3. Creation of a clear map of the partner countries’ career systems, together with other vocational training opportunities.
Training program will be developed to be very accessible and user friendly to the target groups and final beneficiaries. It will be structured in 4 Modules:
1) Intercultural values and attitudes
2) Effective intercultural communication
3) Working together across cultures
4) How to develop a professional career as an intercultural worker
The training resources will include training material for the developed modules using different forms of media. Teaching content will be developed following the topics determined in the curriculum. The training course will also include opportunity for self-assessment tool that will support learners in identifying skills/knowledge gaps. There will be also cross-links to the training material included for the purpose of self-study. The course will be available for download as a pdf file from the project website.
Expected impact
The course will have direct impact on the project target group of 1.5 and 2nd generation migrants which will be better understanding of culture (of the host country but also one’s own) and its implications, as a complex process in which people become members of communities, form basic attitudes, values and norms. Equipped with the knowledge and skills form the course the learners will be able to construct a stable basis for facilitating the process of integration of migrant communities into society.
2GEM project aims to contribute to the migrants’ social and labour market integration by enhancing their employability through the support of 1.5 and 2nd generation migrants transformed into intercultural workers.
Intercultural workers hold a central role in addressing the needs of refugees and migrants as they are directly involved in the facilitation of relations between newcomers and the host environment, aiming at the mutual exchange of knowledge and the establishment of positive relations between individuals of different cultural backgrounds and ethnic origins.
The course study materials will be accompanied by digital resources and links to supplementary study material for each topic. The training program will be submitted for accreditation to the Ministry of Education (or another responsible authority, depending on the partner country), so the course can be considered valid vocational training, hereby increase the participants’ labor market chances.
Elements of innovation
Approaching a training program with the intent of addressing 1.5 and second generation migrants, transforming them into intercultural operators, is in itself an innovation, because it eludes the classic approach of courses on interculturalism, by putting at the center (and as a vehicle) those who live interculturalism in their DNA and their history.
Transferability potential
The output is easily transferable to various geographical contexts (the last module on “How to develop a professional career as an intercultural worker” will take into account the various partner countries’ career systems) but, being a tool on intercultural values, is by definition adaptable to different cultural contexts.