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Intercultural Competency, Employability & Academic Skills Module - CED00214C

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  • Department: Centre for Lifelong Learning
  • Module co-ordinator: Ms. Aoife Burke
  • Credit value: 10 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
    • See module specification for other years: 2021-22

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

The aim of this module is to provide students with the opportunity to increase their intercultural competency and raise their international awareness and sensitivity to UK culture; enhance academic skills such as presentation, critical and reflective thinking skills; and help students develop skills that may be of use to them in the increasingly globalised and competitive job markets (based on York Strengths Employability Skills Programme) and presenting them to future employers. It will include local excursions.

A breakdown of the aims of each strand can be found below.

Intercultural Competency

  • increase participants’ understanding of key aspects of English culture;
  • enhance their intercultural competence;
  • provide participants with the opportunity to visit sites of historical interest in the surroundings of York and place these in the context of UK history and culture.

Employability Skills

  • enable students to identify and explain in detail what they are good at and enjoy doing;
  • help students to identify their Realised Strengths, Emerging Strengths, Learned Behaviours and Weaknesses and differentiate between them;
  • help students to use their Realised Strengths and develop their Emerging Strengths so they’ll stand out from other graduates;
  • build students’ confidence in writing about their strengths and demonstrating them to employers.

Academic Skills

  • develop students’ higher-order thinking skills such as critical thinking and self-reflection;
  • develop students' reflective writing skills.

Module learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

  • apply cultural frameworks for making sense of cultural difference;
  • apply a given reflective model and cultural frameworks to evaluate your experience in the UK;
  • relate what they have learned in the classroom with first hand experience (cultural visits);
  • address issues in a critical, reflective and balanced manner.
  • identify their York Strengths through participation in a range of activities;
  • explain why they think they have these strengths with reference to examples;
  • plan ways to develop and use their strengths in order to make the most of these strengths and also to relate them to possible future careers;
  • describe and explain (with examples) their strengths and SMART goals for the future.

Indicative assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Self-Reflective Report
N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Self-Reflective Report
N/A 100

Module feedback

The tutor will give regular individual verbal and written feedback throughout the module on the learning log via the VLE.

The assessment feedback is as per the university’s system, written on the relevant documents.

Feedback and grades for the summative task will be given within 4 weeks after submission.

Indicative reading

Not applicable.



The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.