Executive summary

For the past 10-15 years, the technical colleges have gradually integrated more international elements into the teaching.

Internationalisation of the programmes is a prerequisite for ensuring state-of-the-art teaching and competitive staff for the labour market. It is therefore essential to ensure a continued development of the international dimension at the educational institutions.

The technical colleges are about to make their internationalisation efforts more professional. From sporadic activities, the internationalisation is to become a more integrated element in the future, a natural and incorporated part of everyday life on a par with other elements in the vocational and personal education of the students – and the teachers.

Internationalisation is however not an easy thing to deal with.

The topic is often experienced as being diffuse and difficult to handle. It is therefore of decisive importance to have a carefully prepared and broadly accepted international strategy which can ensure continuity and correlation in the international activities.

It is the aim of this publication to provide inspiration and assistance to vocational colleges who want to get on with their internationalisation process. It is the idea to set out a model for a process which can lead to the formulation of a viable internationalisation strategy which they can use now and in the future. The model has been drawn up on the basis of specific experience from four technical colleges which in the course of 1999 and the beginning of year 2000 together have taken up the international challenge. In cooperation with Oxford Research, the colleges have carried out a project on the formulation of new internationalisation strategies at each of the colleges.

In other words, the model is based on specific experience gained by colleges, which have carried out a project with the development of strategies for the internationalisation of their programmes, teachers, organisation and management. The model is presented step by step through five phases:

• In phase 0, the need for and aim of the project is elucidated.
• In phase 1, the college’s internationalisation activities of the past and present are presented with regard to scope, nature, experience and economy etc.
• In phase 2, the expected challenges for the individual programmes are investigated over a 5-10-year period. Presentation, dissemination and discussion of this "picture of the world" with external and internal stakeholders at the college (teachers, top management, board of governors, representatives of local industry and organisations).
• In phase 3, possible and desired targets are discussed for the contents and scope, organisation, marketing and financing of the internationalisation initiatives.
• In phase 4, vision, targets and action plan for the internationalisation strategy must be elaborated. The strategy is implemented.

The entire process is largely based on the creation of consensus through the involvement of as many players as possible in interviews, seminars etc. The techniques and methods used are described, and problems, barriers and different models for solving problems, which may crop up in the process, are described. The model can be used by people at all vocational colleges who wish to formulate an internationalisation strategy, or who wish to review the strategy they have used in the past.

Denne side indgår i publikationen "Internationaliseringsstrategi for erhvervsskoler" som kapitel 12 af 12
© Undervisningsministeriet 2000