Students develop essential cross-cultural skills for the global workplace

Understanding how to communicate effectively with coworkers from culturally diverse backgrounds is a career-building strength in today’s global workplace—one that University of Victoria students are learning in an award-winning international co-operative education (co-op) program.

Through dynamic learning opportunities like the Canada-Europe Co-op (CANEU-COOP) program, students work for employers in their field of study while gaining knowledge about other cultures that they can apply to everyday life.

The program goes beyond other simple exchanges with the intentional development of cross-cultural competencies. Students rate themselves before, during and after on knowledge, skills and attributes such as intercultural motivation, intercultural knowledge, strategic thinking and appropriate behaviour.

“We encourage all of our students who complete international co-op terms to consider how their own backgrounds impact their workplace behaviour and to learn as much as possible about the culture of the community they are working in,” says Karima Ramji, UVic manager of International Programs, Co-op Education Program and Career Services. “Students think about their own assumptions and work hard to recognize and adapt to cultural nuances in the workplace and beyond.”

THE CANEU-COOP program was one of UVic’s first international co-op exchanges to use this competency assessment model. The program is distinctive for its “twinning” of students at UVic with exchange students from other countries. 

UVic students travel to Austria or Germany on a four-month work term where they are paired with European students. Both students often work for the same European employer and the following term they both return to UVic, where the European student attends class.

“We’ve found that pairing students gives them a built-in support network and enhances their ability to develop their intercultural competencies,” says Ramji. 

For Evyn Haberstock, a UVic business student who recently completed her co-op term in Germany, the intercultural component was an asset. “I was really aware of how to behave appropriately on my work term, and to adjust my communication style to fit with the company I worked for,” she says. “It’s impacted my email style in Canada too—I’m much more brief with my language to be more direct in how I communicate.”

The CANEU-COOP, a partnership between UVic, University of Waterloo and two European institutions, is receiving an award today from the BC Council for International Education (BCCIE) for Outstanding Program in International Education for its innovative model. 

--30--