Pre-Departure Orientation Website
WELCOME
Welcome and thank you for participating in the Pre-departure Briefing for Youth Internship Programs funded by an International Education Innovation Grant from the Canadian Bureau of International Education. We are certain that you will find it useful and most rewarding. This innovative web-based program will enable you to be better prepared for your internship and it will also provide you with life-long skills to enhance your personal and professional activities in intercultural settings.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Intercultural experiences are both an opportunity and a challenge. They are an opportunity because one can learn from other peoples and cultures and expand one's perspectives. They are a challenge because what is familiar suddenly becomes unknown, what is certain becomes questionable. Intercultural communication training -like the one you will receive throughout this course- provides you with the strategies needed to turn those challenges into enriching opportunities.
This course is designed to help prepare Canadian youth interns for international living, studying and working experiences. It specifically aims at building intercultural communication skills to manage relationships across cultures and to develop trust and credibility with local and international partners. It also assists interns in setting personal and professional goals, within the context of the designated internship programs. Finally, it prepares interns to transfer the skills acquired while working abroad to the Canadian workplace.
The program is self-directed, offering participants the flexibility of accessing it independent of location and time zones. It is interactive, and draws from the past experiences of other Canadian interns and from the expertise of a wide array of intercultural communication trainers working specifically with youth.
The Pre-departure Briefing for Youth Internship Program is a work in progress. Your own experiences -if you are willing to share them with us- could eventually be incorporated to improve the current design and to continue providing Canadian youth interns with the most current, relevant and interesting learning experience in an online environment.
© 2002 Centre for Intercultural Communication, UBC
Email: jack.lee@ubc.ca