Intercultural Approaches to Service Innovation & Design Methods 2012 (IC-SID2012)

The intensive program IC-SID2012 is designed to promote the skills of the participants from the Baltic Sea region (BSR) in Service Innovation & Design (SID) methods with an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach. SID refers to user-based service innovation, development and design so that the service meets the needs of the users and the business and other objectives of the service provider. SID is a very interdisciplinary, practical and applicable approach combining e.g. business, design and ICT know-how. The program’s overall objective is to provide the students with a theoretical and practical knowledge of intercultural communication and SID methods, implementing the knowledge in real-life projects during the IP. The regional objective is to promote international interdisciplinary working in SID in the BSR. The cumulative objective is to create a larger understanding for intercultural skills in SID & the changing working skills in multicultural Europe, and to create a desire to innovate and develop services in the area. The target groups of the IP include the students, teachers and enterprises in the location. The program is designed for first cycle students of all fields. The contents are taught by an intercultural, interdisciplinary teaching team from the participating institutions. The participants will work interactively, varying theory and practice on intercultural theories, interpersonal skills, teamwork, authentic cases, SID methods, negotiations, etc. The students are also responsible for creating service innovations during the IP, the products of which are available on the VLE. Expected outputs include e.g. cooperation processes, managerial lessons learned and know-how, intercultural dialogue and international experience, transnational sharing of experience and best practices, new European partnerships, experience gained, increased knowledge of SID methods, entrepreneurial skills, Service Innovations, PODs and VODs, ICT tools, own website in creating a sustainable learning community www.sidstudies.com (http://www.sidstudies.com), improved communication skills, media publicity, developed key competences for lifelong learning according to the European Reference Framework, networking skills, new ways to learn and teach, future cooperation between the students, teachers & enterprises, an e-article and a documentary film on the IP. International internships and joint thesis projects are anticipated. Expected learning outcomes include e.g. improved social skills, intercultural communication and international teamwork skills, improved management of service systems, service business competence, some principles of SID, SID methods and how to apply them, to be able to use SID methods independently after the IP, the use of innovative methods to generate new ideas for new services, to create service innovations during the IP, increased communication and networking skills.

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