Internationalization efforts include for example offering English courses in Ireland and Scotland for administrative staff, and offering work shadowing at European partner universities and other host institutions. Employees are able to brush up their foreign language competency and undergo an intensive intercultural experience as part of a staff exchange, broadening their horizons in learning about how things are done at other universities.
Many offers are available for University employees under the Erasmus Staff Training Mobility program, some of which are coordinated by our own HR staff development measures. The University’s motivation for recommending such measures to its staff is perfectly expressed by the Erasmus slogan: “Enriching lives, opening minds.” Staff are encouraged to explore new things, expand their frame of reference and enhance their competencies by leveraging our robust network of partner universities.
As Bärbel Konermann-Krüger explains: “The goal of internationalizing our administration can only be fully attained by getting all University members on board, including particularly those administrative staff members who implement our internationalization measures and work with international students and researchers.”
As manager of our staff mobility offerings for enhancing the intercultural competency of administrative staff, Bärbel works tirelessly to promote the various exchange options available: “Many hesitate to take advantage of the possibilities out of concern over what all has to be taken care of while they are away, looking at their desk full of work—or they may worry that their English is less than superb,” she notes. For the most part however, such concerns prove unfounded, and most people end up really enjoying the international contacts they make.
“It is such a personal enrichment, everyone finds.” This was her take-away as well from International Staff Week, held recently by the University of Bonn for the first time, at which 15 international guests from our partner institutions and five University of Bonn staff members shared their experiences and perspectives around “diversity at the workplace”. The valuable experiences they described yielded inspiration and beneficial networking for all who attended, for their own jobs. Remaining in contact is an expressly planned element in this special week, so staff will continue to profit from dialogue with outsiders who have a different frame of reference, affording insights of interest relating to their own jobs.
