Investing in Interculturalism

  ISQ promoted a distance training event in which it recreated a virtual and innovative classroom for the development and acquisition of intercultural competences by trainees. The training aims to prepare them for participation in mobility programmes or professional practices in multicultural environments, often associated with the internationalisation process of the organisations which they are part of, thus improving their social and cultural integration, as well as the efficient development of tasks. As a pilot action, this training course was implemented at ISQ from the 14th May – 29th June, as was the case in the other countries comprising the consortium: Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria and Bulgaria. The increasing cultural diversity of our societies is reflected, among other sectors, in the labour market, where the coexistence of organisations and people from different origins is more and more frequent worldwide. With the objective of achieving a successful cooperation with people of other cultures and countries, it is no longer sufficient to have good technical and linguistic knowledge. It is also a basic requirement to understand the different ways of working, thinking and communicating. In this context, intercultural skills have become key competences for the management of human resources in organisations in the 21st century. This training action was developed under the European Research and Development project (CULTOOL), under the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme. The objectives of the training course were fully achieved and when it finished 27 international certificates were awarded to a diversified, high level group of trainees, who welcomed the initiative and innovative nature of the course.