Sultan Agung Islamic University (UNISSULA) through the Office of International Affairs (OIA) will hold a Sharing Session entitled Capacity Building for International Office Staff on May 2, 2023. This event is intended for international office (IO) staff in higher education institutions in Semarang and its surroundings. Apart from being a post-Idulfitri gathering event, the event aims to enhance the competence of the IO Staff as participants. The event will raise the topic of intercultural competence and its relevance in the IO world.
“If you want to walk fast, then walk alone. If you want to walk far, then walk together.” This adage forms the basis of OIA UNISSULA in its commitment to “unite” IO colleagues in Semarang. OIA UNISSULA dreams of an IO community at the regional level of Semarang City that mutually benefits each other. OIA UNISSULA’s commitment can at least be reflected in the last 2 activities that have been initiated; IO Semarang Gathering on January 13, 2022, and KUI Consortium Sharing Session on June 3, 2023.
As a reminder, the 2022 IO Semarang Gathering resulted in 2 points of discussion, namely; the potential for the establishment of an IO Semarang consortium and the development for IO staff competence. The first point is a discourse that continues to be explored among IO heads/leaders. The second point produces a list of competencies that at least IO staff must have including; foreign language skills, intercultural skills, and service skills.
The upcoming Sharing Session will focus on the topic of intercultural competence and its relevance in the IO world. The event will feature 2 prominent speakers, namely Adhrial Refaddin (LLDIKTI Regional 6 Central Java) and Shy Shavit (Lecturer of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands) who were carrying out a staff exchange at UNISSULA. The session is expected to be able to address the basic theory of culture and its interactions as well as its application in the IO daily job.