Language and Communication Skills in Multicultural Work Environments (10cr)

Objective

The students
- understand language and communication skills as an essential competence of experts
- understand the role and effects of the development of internationalisation in the world of work
- are able to produce easily readable, well-structured, linguistically fluent, and presentable documents and reports for both study and work purposes
- are able to utilise relevant national and international information sources as well as information and communication technology in an appropriate way
- are able to present their thoughts and ideas in an illustrative and interactive manner, taking the audience and the nature and goals of the occasion into consideration
- understand the principles of group and team work and are able to act as a member of multidisciplinary and multicultural work groups
- are able to act in a goal-oriented way in typical field-specific communication and interaction situations, appreciating diversity
- know and understand the purpose and means of internal and external communication in an organisation
- understand the significance of internal and external communication in the operations of an organisation
- master the formal register orally and in writing in the context of the degree programme at the B1 Level of the Common European Framework of Reference (2nd national language), and at the B2 Level (1st foreign language), and are able to use situation-specific language and a good formal style
- are able to assess their own language and communication skills and improve this competence in view of their own needs and the future requirements of the labour market.

Content

Oral and written professional and organisational communication, e.g. small talk, telephone situations and other client contacts; meetings, visits, presentations, reports, e-mail, applications, summaries, utilisation of information technology in communication (word processing, presentation graphics, spreadsheet).
The course is implemented in units as follows: a) Swedish b) English, c) Communication, d) ICT

Qualifications

The students are able to communicate intelligibly, both orally and in writing, in everyday situations, mastering the basic structures of Swedish (default initial level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference) and of a foreign language (default initial level B2). (The students who have completed their school education outside Finland study Finnish instead of Swedish).

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

The student demonstrates his/her competence in relation to the learning outcomes in oral and written situations.
The grading scale of the language and communication skills is 0-5. The scale of the ICT skills is Pass/Fail. The final grade for the course is given when all the units have been completed successfully (minimum requirement “Pass”).
Excellent: The student diligently participates in class work and completes the oral and written assignments, demonstrates excellent mastery of the subject, and is motivated to develop his/her communication skills in a goal-oriented way.
Good: The student diligently participates in class work and completes the oral and written assignments, demonstrates good mastery of the subject, and is able to assess his/her own communication skills.
Satisfactory: The student meets the attendance requirements, demonstrates satisfactory mastery of the subject, and is able to perform self-assessment on the basis of given guidelines.
Sufficient: The student meets the minimum attendance requirements, demonstrates satisfactory mastery of the subject, and is able to assess his/her own development needs on the basis of given guidelines.
Second National Language: The student demonstrates such oral and written skills in Swedish/Finnish that are required of personnel in bilingual public bodies, in compliance with Act 424/2003, 6§.
In the Swedish course (3 cr) included in ZZPC0100, the grades 1-3 correspond to the grade “Satisfactory” and the grades 4-5 correspond to the grade “Good” in terms of the language skills referred to in the aforementioned Act
In compliance with the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice, oral and written language skills are assessed separately in the Swedish language course.