World Languages Skills and Competencies Workshop
In this workshop, students learn about the competencies and skills that they have been developing in their language classes that are transferable to their work/career in the future. The focus is primarily on the development of Intercultural Competence, which has been rated among the top 10 skills needed for working in the future, and is defined as "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts” (Bennett 2008).
Several years ago, a graduating senior reported to her faculty advisor that she was frustrated and worried because she was graduating ONLY with a double major in Italian and Spanish and didn’t know what she was going to do. She felt that she could never get a job. The advisor, who understood the significance of this impactful double major, realized that undergraduates are often not aware of the amazing and sought-after skills that they develop by studying a world language, and so created the World Languages Skills and Competencies Workshop.
In this workshop, students learn about the competencies and skills that they have been developing in their language classes that are transferable to their work/career in the future. The focus is primarily on the development of Intercultural Competence, which has been rated among the top 10 skills needed for working in the future, and is defined as "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts” (Bennett 2008). In this workshop, students explore in detail the concept of Intercultural Competence and then work with a representative from Career services to learn how to represent these skills and competencies on their resume and in job interviews.
You will be happy to know that the graduating senior described above is, as of March 2022, happily employed at a local Columbus nonprofit. She manages a team in a K-8 where she measures the impact of her employees work on the school and the students. The skills and responsibilities of her role look like: data collection and reporting, creating, and facilitating professional development sessions, maintaining relationships with different stakeholders to achieve shared goals, expanding the organization’s vision of diversity and inclusion, working with a diverse group of individuals and much, much more. She plans to continue working her way up in her organization by entering other leadership positions while also beginning to explore other careers because of the transferrable skills she acquired by studying a world language.
Bennett, J. M. 2008. Transformative training: Designing programs for culture learning. In Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: Understanding and utilizing cultural diversity to build successful organizations, ed. M. A. Moodian, 95-110. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.