The project’s main focus and objective is to improve the transversal competences of teachers, students and SME staff. This will be done through joint curriculum development, guided and self-based learning with the help of the PROMINENCE platform, and three intensive programmes. The participating HEIs aim at incorporating the developed curriculum in their relevant courses and promote it to other interested HEIs and SMEs. To achieve the goals PROMINENCE aims, we want to reach our target stakeholders in the most convincing manner: via digital technology, accessible with mobile phones, laptops, tablets and PCs.
This project constitutes a process in which students, HEI teachers and SME representatives collaborate to develop intercultural skills and sensitivity. Each of the three groups of players:
- produce content for the learning process
- engage in the learning process using the content they produced
- assess and reflect the learning process.
The primary outcome of the project is a multifaceted learning module, PROMINENCE Interactive, focusing on the four areas of intercultural competence; i.e. cognitive (what they know), metacognitive (how they perceive things), motivational (how they feel), and behavioral (what they say and how they communicate it) capabilities. Together, these four areas contribute to the employability of students and improve the competitiveness of SMEs by developing a global mindset in the target groups.
PROMINENCE Interactive, a responsive interface especially designed for the project, stands out on the basis of its experiential learning approach, combined with an interdisciplinary, audio-visual, digital collection of inputs by teachers, students and individuals representing SMEs. The material allows users access to specific intercultural encounters that they may use for self-reflection, self-improvement and self-efficacy. They will thus be able to provide their colleagues and employees with examples of good practice in daily business activities in culturally diverse environments.
In order to create content and implement the learning process, three intensive programs will be arranged, each targeting a specific set of skills and goals. The IPs, together with the surveys conducted, essentially contribute to the content production of PROMINENCE Interactive, as well as an accompanying e-book and curriculum development.
The project aims at increasing cultural intelligence of HEI teachers, students and SME staff through collaboration in assisted self-learning, intensive courses and mobility across Europe, to enhance employability of graduates by meeting the needs of SMEs, improving their competitiveness. International experience through experiential learning leads to keen personal and social competences as well as better employability.
The target groups consist of
- Students: to monitor cultural assumptions and adjust mental models, to exhibit appropriate transversal capabilities to improve employability and mindfulness across diverse cultures and situational contexts.
- Teachers: to engage them in the transfer of transversal skills and the development of individuals to become more competent in culturally-diverse interactions.
- SMEs: to engage them in mutual collaboration to foster the development of work-related, practical, social and transversal capabilities.
The project is based on a transnational approach which guarantees a comprehensive and iterative process of experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting in a genuinely international and intercultural framework. Specific, authentic experiences are essential to provide a basis for using transversal skills in diverse cultural business environments. The transnational approach ensures the development of an authentic resource for transversal capabilities and facilitates enhanced cultural awareness.
