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Curriculum Internationalization Consulting

Based on the feedback gained during the programme’s pilot testing phase from participants, trainers, as well as the consortium itself recommendations are incorporated into the final setup of the curriculum on “Internationalization Consulting”.

The general goal of the curriculum at hand is to improve the readiness and qualifications of relevant human resources in order to enable Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to improve the capacities of exploiting of the potential of increasing internationalization. For this purpose this training has been designed, tested and adapted focussing on consultants and employees of SMEs alike in order to augment their knowledge, skills and abilities in specific and practically applicable fields related to economic internationalization. This curriculum intends to transfer most recent knowledge from research into practice by means of state of the art teaching methodology and improve pertinent skills aiding the target audiences to better tackle the challenge of going international or consulting in such endeavours. As the curriculum at hand underwent a rigorous testing phase, collecting information and feedback in a joint effort, the consortium was able to improve and adjust the training programme to best suit the needs of SMEs in general and targeted small to medium consulting businesses.

This curriculum is designed as vocational education programme taking into account the fact that SMEs and consultants usually can provide only limited resources in terms of presence time for training. For this reason as well as for methodological purposes the curriculum at hand employs a blended learning approach incorporating presence learning with selected features of e-learning under the umbrella of a specifically designed learning path. This learning path was set up by experts of the consortium working together on delivering state of the art content using contemporary best practice techniques in vocational education. The course programme, which is held completely in English with participants from all over Europe, emphasizes the importance of the internationalization process for SMEs. The participating host institutions for the training programme issue the certificate upon successful completion of the course programme undertaken if all exams are passed. Participants who can provide evidence for international experience in the form of at least one internationally concluded project have the opportunity to pursue additional certification as CMC (Certified Management Consultant) through local representations of the International Council of Management Consultants.

In total the INCO curriculum is composed of approximately 160 hours of vocational training within a period of 6 months. Each of the 10 days, blocked over two long weekends, covers 8 teaching units of presence learning. In addition to that, e-learning units, project work, and self study of roughly the same amount form an integral part of the curriculum throughout the whole period of the course programme. Entrance requirements laying down the basic prerequisites for the course programme must be fulfilled in order to obtain permission to participate in the training programme. The curriculum is based on a variety of methods and approaches to transport knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) necessary for “Internationalization Consultants”. The important milestones in the learning path are:

-A comprehensive entrance exam to determine participants existing knowledge, skills, and abilities to identify the starting point of the group for further training
-The two presence blocks in which strong interaction and collaborative work are at the forefront of the learning process
-The mid-term evaluation and project assignment will ensure the possibility to constantly monitor the learning progress and start the work on a practical example in the field of internationalization of SMEs and relevant consulting processes.
-The evaluation of the project report determines the quality of the independently worked out project and provide valuable feedback to participants
-At the end of the training a final written exam and an oral examination takes place evaluating the learning process and serving as one pillar for the final grading of participants
-After successful completion of the INCO training programme the optional CMC certification can be obtained through a presentation in front of a commission

This ambitious programme has subsequently been developed to augment the capacities of SMEs and consulting firms alike in order to successfully compete in increasingly internationalizing markets in Europe and beyond.