Intercultural Trainings
NovaTris courses put emphasis on the processes that occur during interactions between individuals and groups. Their objective is to enable the learner (student, teacher, employee, entrepreneur, etc.) to acquire and develop the intercultural skills and experience needed feel comfortable in an intercultural environment.
They guide learners towards independence, of both action and method, so learners can develop their skills on their own, beyond the course.
The work on analysis and knowledge focuses as much on others as on oneself: the learner develops their own intercultural skills individually, depending on their circumstances and their personality.
The intercultural and language courses are customisable. The location, duration, content and objectives will be confirmed, depending on demand. Courses may be delivered in French, German, English and/or Spanish.
More information on NovaTris Teaching Methodology
NovaTris Course Structure
The structure of a NovaTris education module may vary, depending on the educational needs and objectives. They are based on 5 types of complementary activities:
- Ice-breakers: enable participants to make initial contact and begin to build a climate of trust.
- Creation of random groups: helps to encourage new interactions, to participate in short, fun activities.
- Main activities: based on concrete experiences, the topics (related to interculturality) depend on the educational context and objectives.
- Formalisation: done collectively, in groups and/or individually, this helps to express the experience in words.
- Conceptualisation : based on formalisation, the experience can then be expressed as a problem and analysed to define its underlying concepts.
This structure can be enhanced with relevant theoretical contributions.
For 6 years, NovaTris has been offering a range of intercultural workshops to help first year students integrate into the Franco-German dual degree at Sciences Po Lille.
These workshops aimed to improve students’ integration into the course and better prepare them for the sandwich course structure in Lille and Münster that is part of their course design. They encouraged students to think about the implications of a bi-national and bi-cultural university course, anticipating the benefits as well as the difficulties that may occur.
Through a combination of role-play and reflection, the NovaTris workshops provided strategies and tools to analyse and cope with these situations.
NovaTris offers numerous intercultural modules as part of the courses on offer at the Université de Haute-Alsace.
These intercultural modules are integrated into the bi- and tri-national courses and also form part of the Education Sciences bachelor’s degree course. Their objective is to enable students to acquire and/or develop the skills needed to interact in a cross-border environment and to put those skills to good use during their studies as well as in their future professional life.
NovaTris also offers UHA students various mobility schemes and independent language learning opportunities.
Within the framework of the Graduate Academy SERIOR Interreg project, NovaTris organised a full day dedicated to risk management in the Upper Rhine, in collaboration with the town of Saint-Louis. The aim of the event was to make this complex issue accessible to all audiences.
Within this framework, 8 PhD students from the 5 Eucor – The European Campus universities devised and ran interactive workshops for 2 Franco-Germano-Swiss secondary school classes. During a 2-day training course entitled “Transforming Academic Learning into Teachable Knowledge”, 2 teaching consultants from NovaTris assisted the 8 PhD students in developing the skills and tools needed to make their research topic more appealing to the general public, touching on risk in the broadest sense.
Each PhD student thus designed an interactive workshop, through which they passed on their academic knowledge to a young, non-specialist audience. This exercise enabled discussion about various research topics from an innovative perspective, and reflection on how to pass on knowledge in a fun, interactive way.
NovaTris Since 2017, NovaTris has been offering an intercultural course entitled “Communicating in Another’s Language”. This free course is open to all Campus university staff.
It is organised in partnership with the Université de Haute-Alsace Pôle ForCe Learning Center, the University of Freiburg im Breisgau Language School and the Language Centres at the University of Basel and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
50% of participants are native German speakers and 50% native French speakers, which thus encourages interaction in both languages. It takes place over 5 days, divided into 3 sessions and alternates between the UHA, the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, the University of Basel and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
The objective of “Communicating in Another’s Language” is to enrich real-life experiences through innovative approaches to learning. Participants learn from each other and acquire language and intercultural skills.
A variety of approaches are employed: intercultural awareness and support, assisted self-study language learning, tutored tandem exchanges, language learning through theatre, etc.
View the diary for dates of upcoming courses.
Within the framework of EPICUR, the European University project, NovaTris has had the pleasure of running a number of team building workshops for the International Team Building Kick-off. Designed and delivered in English by two teaching consultants from NovaTris, the aim of these workshops was to allow those involved in the project to get to know each other, and learn to work together.
The 29 participants, from the 8 partner universities in the EPICUR project, were meeting each other for the first time. The intercultural workshops delivered by NovaTris were therefore very valuable in building a good team.
In September and October 2019, NovaTris worked with EIFER (European Institute for Energy Research) in Karlsruhe. This Franco-German institute (a partnership between EDF [the French national electricity company] and the Land Baden-Württemberg) brings together people from all over the world.
In this context, NovaTris offered 3 CPD modules, covering Meeting Culture, Intercultural Communication for Management and Conflict Resolution. This joint undertaking came into being thanks to the networking endeavours of the Foundation Partenariale Haute-Alsace.
Participants had the opportunity to reflect on their day-to-day practices, in meetings or in the context of any conflicts, and consider how they communicate in these different situations, to identify good practices and how these can be developed/improved.
In the context of its inaugural Study Day On Cross-border Cultural Cooperation and the National Conference of the FNADAC (National Federation of Associations of Regional Authorities’ Directors of Cultural Affairs), the DAC Grand-Est (Grand-Est Directors of Cultural Affairs) called upon NovaTris to organise and run two think-tank workshops on the skills needed to set up cross-border projects.
The analysis of existing projects and the far-reaching thinking on potential future projects enabled the Directors of Cultural Affairs from different towns and cities to reach a better understanding of the complexity and implications of such projects.
What People Say
Training Course « Communicating In Another's Language »
*These comments have been translated from French.
Photo credit : Victoria Harster