“STUDY INTERNATIONAL” CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

You will learn about references and contexts of social work beyond national borders. This includes, for example, knowledge about international organizations, professional associations and fields of work as well as the roles and tasks of social work professionals in international cooperation, but also comparisons of social work practices in different countries and places around the world.

Equally essential are theories and concepts of migration, diversity, (anti-) discrimination, transnational social work as well as power-critical perspectives on interculturality, which help you justify your actions. By examining these approaches in the “Study International” certificate program, you will gain more confidence for your own professional actions in international fields of work.

For you as a professional to adequately classify and act in international and intercultural settings, appropriate research and action methods are important. How cross-border cooperation can succeed and how one's own cultural background influences the assessment of situations are questions that social work professionals encounter on a daily basis. This knowledge will give you the confidence to gather and assess information, as well as choose approaches appropriate to the setting.
 

You will deepen your knowledge in the area of subject and methods by writing additional papers or attending specialized lectures, participating in study trips with relevant topics, attending international lectures or writing your own project ideas.

Mastering foreign languages and knowing the region of origin of social work recipients is a key to trustful interaction. At the same time, you can deepen communication skills in the everyday work of social work professionals. After all, more and more people who use social services come from the most diverse regions of the world. Learning a foreign language opens the door to a more intensive knowledge and understanding of other regions and thus to new perspectives. In addition, foreign languages enable students to exchange ideas with professionals across borders and to gain access to professional literature, as well as to broaden their insights beyond their profession.

 

Therefore, the “Study International” certificate program includes the area of language and region and honors participants' multilingualism. They gain confidence in communication and can more accurately locate and assess narratives as well as situations of interaction.

You will deepen your knowledge in the area of language & region by attending language courses, participating in a tandem/buddy program, presenting experiences about living abroad or being an international student in Germany.

Stays abroad during your studies can diversify your own habits and encourage you to question your own attitudes. As a student, you gain experience in international organizations and learn about ways of working in other countries and cultural contexts. Thus, a semester abroad as part of your studies or internship, as well as a short-term stay abroad, can make an important contribution to broadening your own horizons and making new contacts. There are also institutions in your own place of residence, such as intercultural kindergartens, migration counseling centers and associations, where you can experience a world that is different from your own. In this way, you gain confidence in dealing with personal experience of foreignness and difference, reflect on your own privileges and understand different positions of power.

You can demonstrate how you examine your own experience by carrying out and reflecting stays abroad, participating in workshops in the field of cultural self-reflection or attending CCC offers in intercultural competence.

The interconnections and effects of one's own actions in different parts of the world are becoming clearer than ever before. These circumstances require social work professionals to be particularly sensitive to ethical issues of inequality, exclusion and oppression beyond the immediate sphere of influence of everyday work. A global awareness as well as a political positioning with regard to cross-border structures are part of the professional understanding for social work professionals and can be expressed, for example, through civic, activist or political commitment. The “Study International” certificate program recognizes this commitment. You will gain confidence in your professional role in a globally connected world.

 

You can demonstrate how you examine your own ethical and political position, for example, through active involvement in civil society or university policy groups, professional presentations or term papers on a relevant topic, or by developing your own projects on relevant topics.