about us

why office interactors

Employment, equality and 'flexicurity' are the words summing up the conclusions of the European Council’s Spring Summit, March 2006. The Commission makes it clear that “the workforce must be equipped to be adaptable and given the opportunity to acquire transferable skills”.

Such recommendations are supported by the special Eurobarometer survey and report “European Employment and Social Policy 2006”. According to it, 88% of Europeans find that “regular training improves one’s job opportunities”, but only 9% in Bulgaria and 10% in Romania, 16% in Spain, 20% in Lithunaia and 25% in France have actually benefited from training for/at work in the 12 months prior to this study!

Equally relevant, the following skills are regarded as giving the extra advantage needed in finding and keeping a job apart from one’s level of qualifications and professional experience: ability to adapt (54% in France, 25% in Lithuania, 24% in Spain, 20% in Romania and 14% in Bulgaria), language skills (25% in Bulgaria, 18% in Lithuania, 16% in Romania, 11% in France and Spain) and computer skills (22% in Bulgaria, 18% in Romania, 14% in Lithuania, 9% in France and Spain).

Such findings come to underline the need for EU supported training opportunities, which would:

• address the gap / facilitate the transition between what students learn in the classroom and what they would be required to do on the job
• integrate professional learning aims with general, transferable skills: adaptability, language and computer skills (plus teamwork and negotiation skills) be delivered through and with the support of employers, inviting beneficiaries (employers and employees) as educational partners in the customization of the training according to needs and interests
• develop confidence, entrepreneurship and motivation for lifelong learning.
   

The Office InterActors project develops and delivers a didactic model addressing such needs  in Business & Administration. Nowadays, to make business also means to master at least partially the language and the cultural business peculiarities of the interlocutors, including the ability to facilitate a win-win business outcome. Office InterActors educational model is based on simulating and practising relevant and realistic problem-solving scenarios in international teams. In doing this, the premises will be created for not only building local capacity among the staff employed in Business & Administration in the project participant countries, but also contributing to the personal development and self confidence of those benefiting from the project.

The project addresses, on the one hand, office workers who nowadays need “basic” skills just as “advanced” as the top management does and, on the other hand, the educationalists that are expected to anticipate the profile of skills needed from office/admin workers in the future. Consequently, this will make the Office InterActors model operational and transferable within a broad business environment . Soft skills such as decision making, team work, evaluation and self evaluation, negotiation, persuasion associated to knowledge and practice of problem solving, project work, ICT, foreign languages,  all lead to the development of a healthier business environment through increased interoperability.