Intercultural competence enables effective response to challenges of intercultural situations

IOM Slovenia continued with the series of capacity-building trainings within the Includ-EU project by organizing an online training on intercultural competence in education. Representatives of local authorities and stakeholders working on migration issues and in educational settings attended the training held on 17 March 2022.

The first part of the training was implemented by Mr. Calin Rus, the Director of the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara, Romania. He outlined that migration is not only a challenge, but a phenomenon with an important contribution to our societies. Deconstructing the concept of identity, he highlighted that in multiple cultural affiliations, different levels of belonging can complement each other. Introducing the concept of intercultural competence, Mr. Rus emphasized that it enables effective and appropriate response to challenges of intercultural situations. He concluded by emphasizing that diversity can be a source of learning.

The second part of the training was held by Dr. Marijanca Ajša Vižintin, a Research fellow at the Slovenian Migration Institute (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts). She emphasized that inclusion is not only language, while language is the basis for inclusion. She introduced the intercultural education model which she developed, and highlighted that intercultural competence is a lifelong learning process.

In the concluding part, the participants stressed the need for capacity-building opportunities for strengthening their own intercultural skills and competence which contributes to inclusive education on all levels.

Graphic harvest of the training was done by Špela Gorjan from Nariši mi zgodbo.