Need for the Intercultural Awareness in Erasmus Mobility – Administrative Point of View

• Published in: Key Competencies in the Knowledge Society pp. 435 - 439
• Main Authors: Welzer, Tatjana, Družovec, Marjan, Hölbl, Marko, Bonačić, Mirjam
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
• Subjects: cultural awareness; intercultural dialogue; Lifelong learning; mobility
• ISBN: 9783642153778; 3642153771
• ISSN: 1868-4238; 1861-2288
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-15378-5_42

In recent years, mobility has become one of the most important goals inside the European Union (EU). Different projects and programs support the mobility of students, teachers and other employed persons. From program to program and project to project, goals are different. Through employment, companies have the need for different experts or the need to work with international teams. They can also offer jobs for placements and for young experts for their first employment (like the Leonardo da Vinci program), while for students and teachers, the main goals of mobility are learning and teaching in different environments (like the Erasmus program) as well as learning languages and benefiting from cross-cultural experiences. Both students and teachers come from different cultural environments and the host organisation has to take care of intercultural awareness in all levels of activities, from administration up to teaching and passing exams.