1.  Achilles Kameas Hellenic Open University

2.  Over the last decades, the scale of migration has been growing considerably throughout Europe o Immigrants move between the member states, or come to EU member states from third countries o Immigration is a key issue of European policies and governments  There is an increased need to assist foreign citizens toward a smooth cohabitation in the host country o People find it difficult to live with diversity, to transact and to do business with “unknown” people in unfamiliar environments o This misunderstanding is generated by lack of knowledge of the “other” 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 2

3.  Cultural Mediators are professionals who are trained to facilitate relations between local and foreign citizens, and to promote reciprocal knowledge and comprehension aimed at favoring a positive relationship between persons of different cultural backgrounds  The main characterizing elements of Cultural Mediators are communication competence, empathy, active listening and good knowledge of both the hosting country and country of origin (culture, laws, traditions, etc.)  To meet the requirements of their role, Cultural Mediators must possess a combination of formal and non-formal skills and competences that can only be developed with a combination of formal training and practical experience 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 3

4.  The profession of Cultural Mediator is not yet recognized as such o What is the role of CM? What is their operational framework? o How can their qualifications be described?  Very few, if any, formal educational programmes are addressed to CMs o What are their training needs?  Although a large volume of knowledge on immigration issues is available, the titles that present practical advice are very few o Can we record the experience of CMs? o Can we facilitate the exchange of experience? 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 4

5.  The SONETOR project aimed at o Recording the necessary qualifications and the training needs of Cultural Mediators o Facilitating the exchange of experience between the members of the CM community  The project adopted a dual approach o Guided training scenarios have been prepared by the members of the consortium o A peer learning approach is facilitated, which supports the exchange of working experience and real life situations among the Cultural Mediator communities and other stakeholders 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 5

6.  A detailed comparative user needs analysis in the fields of legislation, training, collaboration and skills definition  A platform serving as a focal communication point for European Cultural Mediators and other stakeholders  Learning scenarios on topics related to the everyday practice of Cultural Mediators  A European community of Cultural Mediators composed of representatives of all stakeholders  A final plenary workshop, which will promote the outcomes of the project and define exploitation and sustainability policies 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 6

7.  The project has developed a training platform that o Supports training and peer learning and o Assists Cultural Mediators in developing non-formal skills and competences and in applying them during their work with immigrants  The main innovative feature of SONETOR is the integration of social networking tools in the platform o Social networking applications are increasingly penetrating formal educational and training settings and lead to the development of new training practices, which realize modern theories of learning (i.e. social constructivism, peer learning etc.) in contemporary networked environments 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 7

8.  Establishment of a European learning community of Cultural Mediators composed of representatives of all stakeholders.  Representatives of the target group have been invited to participate in the pilot use of the social networking platform, to produce static and dynamic content, to be trained with it and eventually to learn by interacting with peers in the context of specially designed training scenarios.  Core Users Group (CUG): This group consists of at least 5 users per country. They have been trained in the use of the platform and act as facilitators for the broader CM community  National Moderators (NM): One CUG member per participating country has been appointed as a National Moderator responsible for coordinating the activity of CMs at a national level  Scenarios Core Communities (SCC): Each community will consist of members of CUG and will collaboratively realize a specific peer learning scenario 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 8

9.  A detailed comparative needs analysis in the fields of legislation, training, collaboration and skills definition has been carried out  Respondents pointed the following desirable domains of knowledge when working with immigrants: immigration law, psychology, family studies, education, social policy, sociology, cultural studies, linguistics, political science, philology, international relations, international law, social science or cultural mediation.  Regarding the appropriate skills, they distinguish the following: knowledge of immigrants’ languages and way of thinking, knowledge of immigrant culture, ability to remain calm, administrative and psychological skills.  Abilities that would be useful include: communication skills, curiosity, openness, tolerance, empathy, creativity, understanding, accuracy, self- organization, respect, self-control, resistance, power, accuracy, solidarity, sociability, self-confidence, honesty. 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 9

10.  Diagnosing and solving various problems related to the process of adaptation of immigrants to the social, cultural and civilizational conditions of the host country requires that the person filling the role of cultural mediator has a knowledge of anthropological and sociological type  To effectively carry out their responsibilities, cultural mediators should also have a specific set of practical skills that enable them to effectively fulfill the role of an intermediary between immigrants and the reality of the host country, such as working knowledge of foreign languages and a predisposition to learning foreign languages, skills related to "completing administrative matters" and ability to efficiently interact with the system of institutions in the host country. The importance of knowledge of computer usage and social media is increasing 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 10

11.  The CM job profile is based on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) (levels 5-7) in order to make qualifications more readable and understandable across different countries and systems in Europe  Analysis resulted to the development of both a complete job profile and a qualifications module o Published for consultation in the training platform  Qualifications are classified into: o Social and civic competences (SCC) o Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (SIE) o Cultural awareness and expression (CAE) o Digital competences (DC) 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 11

12.  Using the technical terminology related to social and civic skills (SSC, Level 5 and above)  Being able to introduce and instruct apprentices/ peers and immigrants in different steps of socialisation processes (SSC, Level 5 and above)  Being able to place him/herself into the position of the immigrants – to show empathy (SSC, Level 5 and above)  Being able to monitor and direct operations in hazardous situations concerning personnel environment until – other – authoritative assistance arrives (SSC, Level 7)  Being able to use information from various sources – handbooks, reports, internet etc. (SIE, Level 5 and above)  Helping colleagues to find necessary details (SIE, Level 5 and above)  Being able to realise the valid laws for working time (SIE, Level 7)  Being able to make prompt important decisions (SIE, Level 7)  Knowing well how to communicate freely using the cultural related terminology, abbreviations, nomenclature and similar (CAE, Level 5 and above)  Knowing the characteristics and understand behaviour related to different cultures and ethnic minorities (CAE, Level 5 and above)  Knows how to use interactive platforms, social media tools for interaction with the target groups of immigrants (DC, Level 5 and above)  Being able to complete forms, certificates, reports and other written templates for special software programs used in the daily work (DC, Level 6 and above) 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 12

13.  Most Cultural Mediators are professionals who lack formal education on cultural mediation and are in need of continuous support  The training platform integrates existing social networking applications with specified adult educational methodologies and specially produced content and services  The platform offers the following services to registered users: o view a training / peer learning scenario o create/ moderate/ join a training scenario o upload episodes to a scenario o start/ join a discussion within a scenario o post messages to the forum o maintain a blog related to Cultural Mediation o contribute to the wikis/ start a wiki o create a community (group) of users interested in some specific topic o follow a community/ subscribe to a notification service o post news, announcements etc 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 13

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17.  Two kinds of scenarios: o Guided training scenarios: these comprise a series of sequentially ordered steps that end users must follow in order to receive a certificate. Each step contains text and multimedia content that must be studied, as well as a set of questions and exercises that must be answered in order to proceed to the next step. o Unguided (peer) learning scenarios: they constitute the main learning service offered to end users; in fact, they are developed by end users themselves! Specific areas of cultural mediators’ activity have been selected and end users are asked either to upload related episodes or comment on episodes uploaded by their peers, based on their experience Areas of activity include: Health, Education, Housing and Law  Training scenarios o Are based on story telling o Are composed of episodes (i.e. incidents that CMs had to deal with) o Are supported by digital content (videos, textual descriptions, etc) o Are connected to blogs and forums in the platform o Can be updated and maintained by CMs themselves 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 17

18.  Project SONETOR has gone a long way o From recording the needs of Cultural Mediators o To developing an EQF based description of qualifications o And developing a training platform to serve their needs  The SONETOR platform embeds social computing tools to o Offer guided training scenarios o Enable CMs participate in peer learning activities by uploading and exchanging experience, knowledge, opinions, etc.  The CM community has been engaged from the start of the project o Participation in the platform is open  The platform is becoming more lively every day aiming to serve as a focal point for European CMs o At least 400 users across Europe have been using the platform  We are now concerned with the exploitation of project outcomes 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 18

19.  Training platform is available and can be accessed at o http://www.culturalmediators.eu/ http://www.culturalmediators.eu/  Those interested in the project and peer learning activities can enroll for free o Participation to the Scenarios Core Communities is open  More info o kameas@eap.gr kameas@eap.gr o kopo@ecomet.eap.gr kopo@ecomet.eap.gr 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 19

20. Hellenic Open University E-CoMeT Lab CoordinatorGreece University of LimerickPartnerIreland Pontifical University of John Paul IIPartnerPoland Research Academic Computer Technology Institute PartnerGreece MARQUE 21 SLPartnerSpain BEST Institut für berufsbezogene Weiterbildung und Personaltraining PartnerAustria 8/1/2014 www.sonetor-project.eu / www.culturalmediators.eu 20

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