Cross Culture

If you have overseas staff in your organisation these topics can help them

Welcome Back

- Returning home

Surprisingly, returning from an overseas assignment is a demanding transition.

Studies show that an individual who returns to the homeland after living overseas for a significant time faces 're-entry' challenges that can potentially unsettle and destabilise the individual’s emotional, social and psychological status.

A large multinational company which regularly despatches staff around the globe discovered that up to 15% of their staff would not return to work for the company after coming home. When investigating this alarming attrition, they discovered that issues of 're-entry' changed the way the worker viewed their life and career.

Life is full of transitions and to successfully negotiate through the maze of emotional, social and psychological feelings requires great skill. Trying to re-integrate into life back at home after an overseas stint can make these even more challenging. But when time is taken to explain the process of re-entry transition, attrition rates fall dramatically and companies retain their valuable and highly skilled employees.

“Welcome back!" is a full-day program that aims to provide the skills needed for a smooth transition to life back at home. Participants will have the opportunity to review their overseas posting, consider the challenges facing them as they return home, and will be presented with strategies for integration and bring closure to the past. Participants will be ready to take on the challenges and delights of being back home, confident of moving on to the next phase of their life.

Topics covered include: Time to debrief, understanding the process of transition, the challenges of re-entry and looking ahead: putting it all together.

Thriving in Another Culture
- Building a home away from home

This half-day workshop aims to provide an overview of the challenges of living in another culture and to present basic skills for a successful integration into the new environment.

By the end of the workshop the participants should be able to:

Recognise the symptoms of culture shock and be familiar with several strategies that can help adjust to the new environment.
Understand the process of transition and how it might affect their work and personal life.
Understand the life-cycle of an overseas posting and what that means for them as an individual.
List several strategies that will help them manage inter-cultural relationships and unfamiliar situations.
Be confident that they are to build a home away from home.

This workshop is suitable for anyone planning an international move. Students going abroad to study, families relocating due to work placements, humanitarian aid workers, missionaries, teachers in international schools, etc.

Third Culture Kids

"Third culture kid" (TCK) is a term used to refer to children raised in a culture other than their parents' (or the culture of the country given on the child's passport, where they are legally considered native) for a significant part of their early development years. In our globalised world this is no longer a phenomena reserved for a few; all over the world TCK’s can be found.

This two-hour workshop for parents of TCK’s aims to provide information and practical advice for raising a third culture kid with all is uniqueness, joys and challenges.

Families & Missions

Compelled by the call to go, many families pack up and leave the familiar to work and minister in an unfamiliar environment.

What does this mean practically?

What kinds of issues are faced by the missionary marriage?

What about the kids?

How do you handle the everyday stresses while pursuing a nobler cause?

This four-hour practical workshop will help prospective missionary families prepare for the joys and challenges ahead.

Ministering Cross Culturally

This 15-hour course is designed for participants who are planning to live, work and serve in a foreign country.

Topics covered include: worldviews, cross-cultural communication, understanding and working with cultural norms different to your own, form versus function, characteristics of a successful minster and much more. This course is suitable for Christian ministry workers planning to serve in another culture.