The Colbourne Institute for Inclusive Leadership creates resources to support intercultural competence and to facilitate immigrant integration. As a learning organization, the Centre integrates our developing knowledge into the training and educational products we create.
These modules will help facilitate the engagement, integration and success of internationally trained individuals in Canadian workplaces by exploring key concepts around diversity and inclusive behaviors, and developing confidence and proficiency with intercultural communication. The modules will also augment the intercultural competencies of Canadian workers who interact daily with internationally trained individuals, laying the foundation for a productive working relationship. Modules were created in conjunction and partnership with Enbridge and the Government of Alberta.
Several intercultural resources, facilitator guide and workshops were developed as deliverables during the Online Workplace Integration Languages Resources (OWLs) project funded by Alberta Employment and Immigration. The project's purpose was to develop online resources to support the teaching and learning of workplace integration language skills for newcomers to Canada.
For more information and a full list of deliverables with links to resources, visit the OWLs Project.
The Something's Up Cycle is a reflective skill building practice used by individuals and facilitators to promote intercultural competence development. Get a full description of the Something’s Up! Cycle (PDF).
The Critical Incidents for Intercultural Communication in Health Care project developed a resource that will increase the intercultural communication competence of health professionals in culturally diverse healthcare contexts and teams. The resource will also support internationally graduated health-care professionals recruited to work and live in Alberta.
The Roots and Connections resource is a culturally integrated English as a Second Language (ESL) resource that provides the foundation for English language learning using a community orientation and cultural integration approach.
The Common Ground: English in the Workplace resource is designed to support English in the Workplace programming. The How-to Guide, Training Manual, and Facilitator Guide are designed to be "stand alone" resources that can be used by certified and non-certified English language instructors to deliver English in the Workplace programming.
The English in the Workplace: New Employee Orientation for Newcomers in the Workplace project was a response to a need identified in the Alberta trades sector to increase the percentage of newcomers passing basic site safety training as a requirement to gain access to employment.
For more information on the project and the resources available, visit the Gaining Access: New Employee Orientation for Newcomers project page.
The Immersion to Integration: Beyond Access project (Phase 2) focused on the issue of organizational integration for internationally educated professionals (IEPs) in two organizations actively employing engineers with education and experience outside of Canada.
For more information on the project and the resources available, visit the Immersion to Integration: Beyond Access (Phase 2) project page.
This research project developed a pedagogical tool to facilitate effective intercultural communication in the workplace.
For more information on the project and the resources available, visit the Teaching Pragmatics to EAL Learners for the Workplace: The Job Interview project page.
Colbourne Institute for Inclusive Leadership list of favourite Intercultural Readings and Resources.
Download Intercultural Readings and Resources List (pdf)
The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) is a powerful assessment tool to help individuals and teams assess and reflect on stages of cultural sensitivity.
View a full description of the IDI (pdf) and how our qualified administrators can help you.
Critical Incidents are tools for increasing our awareness and understanding of human attitudes, expectations, behaviours, and interactions. These tools engage participants on a meaningful, personal level and help them examine attitudes and behaviours that might be critical to their effectiveness in the roles they perform.
The Critical Incidents for Intercultural Communication toolkit has been developed from stories and quotes collected in open-ended interviews with students and instructors at NorQuest College and in the broader community. Designed for, but not limited to an educational context, this collection (and the accompanying facilitator and activity guide) seeks to help participants reflect on the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges, while at the same time facilitating their ability to distinguish and develop higher degrees of intercultural sensitivity.
To order or for more information on the complete Toolkit which includes the Facilitator and Activity Guide and Critical Incidents Cards.
Call 780.644.6770 or email us Catalog number: 15501 Price: $100
Download the Facilitator and Activity Guide (pdf)
The Intercultural Coach is an interactive online training tool developed through a collaborative partnership with ACCESS with funding from Alberta Advanced Education and Technology. It is designed as an introduction to intercultural communication focusing on a workplace context. It takes from 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete.
Start your interactive session with the Intercultural Coach!
We welcome comments and questions about the Intercultural Coach. Send your feedback to infoic@norquest.ca or 780.644.6770.
Phone: 780.644.6770
Toll-free: 866.534.7218 Ask to be transferred to the Colbourne Institute for Inclusive Leadership.
Email: icinfo@norquest.ca
For more resources for educators and trainers visit Educational Resources for Educators