Keys to Employability - Intercultural Competence

As the unemployment rates among youth in Europe are becoming alarmingly high, there is a visible need to come up with innovative strategies which can improve young people's chances on the labor market. Many of the young unemployed already gained important practical skills in the course of their formal education but at the same time they are often lacking certain soft skills which are equally essential to build a satisfying and successful career. In the modern, globalized world where many organizations and institutions operate on a multinational level, their future employees are expected to have competences which will enable them to also work in an international environment. Moreover, as modern societies are culturally diverse in itself to a large extent, the ability to successfully cooperate with people with different cultural backgrounds has became a crucial competence not only in private life but also in the professional field. Therefore, it is necessary to provide youth with an opportunity to develop a basic set of essential intercultural competences that will not only boost their chances on the labor market, but will also strongly contribute to their social and personal development. The proposed Training Course "Intercultural Employability" is designed to gather youth workers and young leaders and give them a chance to explore and experience practical tools on developing the intercultural competence of young people. The participants are expected to act as multipliers, who will first understand and learn the methods themselves and then apply the newly acquired knowledge with their beneficiaries after coming back to their respective local communities. Apart from the practical part, the TC will also consists of several sessions devoted to theoretical aspects of interculturality and intercultural communication, providing participants with the space for a critical reflections on basic notions connected to the topic.