Increasingly, international UT students are considering to stay and start their career in the Netherlands. Building your career in the Netherlands is not always as easy as it seems though. It requires building your cross-cultural muscle to get a feel for Dutch culture, knowing more about Dutch organizational cultures and businesses, as well as sufficient Dutch language skills. This minor therefore offers you a kickstart into Dutch work life, closely supported by the UT and businesses in the Twente region. Altogether this minor aims to enhance your opportunities to find a job and build your career in a Dutch company, by learning to:
- speak Dutch at a B1 level to be able to communicate on the work floor;
- understand and adjust to Dutch culture and labour market; as well as
- acquire skills to ‘read’ and handle Dutch organizational cultures well and build connections by doing a consultancy assignment in a Dutch company.
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The minor consists of three interrelated 5-EC courses:
- Dutch Language (5 EC): In this course, you will extend your knowledge of the Dutch language from zero level to minimally the A2 level (more is possible). You will learn Dutch to the level in which you can communicate with your Dutch colleagues in a working environment. For example, you will learn ways to call an official body, write a cover letter, have a job interview, have conversations on your first day of work and present an idea for your own company. You discuss how you communicate at work, respond to feedback from your supervisor, have an informal conversation with your colleagues.
- Adjusting to the Dutch Labour Market (5 EC): For many centuries, the Dutch have been trading goods across the globe which can be linked back to how Dutch tend to behave at work, for instance: How do they make decisions? How do they negotiate? How do they present themselves at work? How do they socialise (or not) with colleagues? In this course you will learn all about Dutch culture and behaviour in general and how this works out in companies and other organisations in particular. You will observe that the Dutch might react differently from you in the same situation, learn to understand why and to effectively dealing with that. You will also learn about the typical behaviours of people in the Twente region, and how this differs from other Dutch regions. Finally, you will get an overview of the various type of employers in the Netherlands and the Twente region. An important part is reflecting on your own culture and work preferences, and finding the kind of work and employers that fit best to you.
- Organisational Cultures and Consultancy in the Netherlands (5 EC): When working within an organisation it is key to both sense and understand the organisational ways of working, which might differ substantially among different types of firms. At the same time, cross-cultural differences on the work floor can lead to frictions. Organisational cultures can be hard to grasp, but the right knowledge and skills will help. Management consultancy is a field of business which is geared towards analysing an organisation’s current situation (including organisational culture) and advising them on how to improve, as well as a popular sector for both business and technical students to start their career. Hence, in this course you will learn what it means to work in a variety of small, medium-sized or large organisations in the Netherlands while at the same time developing your consulting skills such as analysing, observing, asking questions, and providing constructive feedback and advise. This course brings theoretical depth and integrates (regional) company field visits, role play, and video analyses of regular work team meetings to make (various!) Dutch organisational cultures more tangible as well as how cross-cultural differences can be dealt with in the workplace. Students will be challenged to explore and experience the theory first-hand, thereby also offering advise to regional businesses on how to keep talent in Twente as part of their final challenge-based learning project.
Additional information: Registering by mail to: a.h.enklaar@utwente.nl
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