Most people nowadays need to carry out their work in a context of high cultural diversity. Due to migration, internationalization and globalization, people in virtually all sectors are faced with highly diverse contexts. Often, this entails contacts with people from a variety of national or ethnic backgrounds, in diverse environments and changing settings. Mere information about different places and groups and associated ‘do’s and don’t’s’ are no longer helpful (if they ever were), and perhaps even counterproductive. This course is therefore aimed at individuals that want to enhance their intercultural competence: their capacity to respond to (cultural) differences constructively, effectively and appropriately. The course takes place fully online, so that in principle anyone, anywhere can participate on the basis of open registration.
How
The course consists of five online group sessions, where we will interactively discuss certain theories, frameworks and approaches. Between the sessions, participants are invited to engage in self-reflective exercises – alone or with a buddy. Every participant will have a personal intake meeting with the trainer to discuss learning goals, and a final individual reflection session to discuss their learnings and future steps.
Background
This course builds on the extensive experience with intercultural training at KIT Institute, which goes decades back. Based on both extensive academic knowledge as well as hands-on-experience with intercultural learning among a multitude of target groups, we have developed our own approach to this learning, based on the notion of ‘transformational learning’. This means that while we provide elements from an ‘instrumental learning’ approach such as knowledge, theories and tools, we believe that the real learning takes place when these are used for self-reflection. To put it simply: people forget information and tools, but they remember the insights into themselves, their perceptions of others, and their interactions. This makes this learning approach both sustainable and enduring, applicable to a wide variety of situations and contexts.
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For who
This course is aimed at anyone working in a multicultural or international environment, from any industry, e.g.
- Government
- International development and NGO’s
- Health care
- Education
- Business
The course materials will be aimed at general competence development, independent of specific sectors, but the intake and coaching sessions as well as the interactive exercises will allow you to apply it on your own professional context.
By who
Arjan Verdooren is a long-time associate trainer and consultant for KIT Royal Tropical Institute. He has extensive experience with professional training and consultancy for a wide range of organizations. In addition, he has lectured at various universities, including the University of Gothenburg and the HTW University Berlin. He has authored several publications in the field, most notably the book ‘Diversity Competence-Cultures Don’t Meet, People Do’ (with Edwin Hoffman PhD). Arjan specializes in the connection between theory and practice in the fields of intercultural communication and Diversity & Inclusion.
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What is the content?
The course consists of five online Zoom sessions of 2,5 hours each, combined reflection or buddy-exercises between sessions and individual intake and 'take-out' sessions.
The course is open to participants worldwide and will run in English.
The five online group sessions will cover the ollowing topics:
- Worldviews, values, orientations
- Communication and communication styles
- Identity
- Perception, stereotypes and bias
- Intercultural interaction
Cost
The price per participant is E 495
Those interested from Lower and Middle Income Countries are invited to get in touch to explore the possibilities.
Early bird price for registration before June 25th: E 395
Period
Next course: Autumn 2025
Dates:
September 25th,
October 9th and 23d
November 6th
Time: 13.00-15.30 CET
The individual intake and reflection sessions will be planned before and after the course at your convenience.
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LET US KNOW YOU'RE INTERESTED!
*Mandatory fields