Designing A Pre-departure Training Program For High School Students Intending To Study Overseas

The world today is fast developing into a world village, witnessing interculturalexchanges of various types, among which academic sojourn of international studentsis attracting increased attention. The demand for intercultural training programstailored to their needs is rising, while there is a shortage of both academic attentionand existing programs. This study attempts to provide a practical training programbased on theories of adaptation and intercultural competence, so as to preparewould-be international students for their intercultural journey overseas.Before designing the program, the training needs of the participants have beenevaluated, using questionnaire surveys. Staff members from the study-overseasagency as well as former overseas students are interviewed as key informants, inorder to approach this issue from multiple angles.This program is a balanced blend of culture-general and culture-specifictraining content, adopting both didactic and experiential training activities, such asinformation briefings, critical incidents and simulation games. The three-dayprogram is carefully sequenced following the order of moving from simple topics tomore sensitive or controversial issues.Subsequently, the training program was implemented to the trainees and theoutcome was evaluated. The results of the pre-and post-tests, using the InterculturalSensitivity Scale (ISS)(Chen&Starosta,2000), indicate a considerable increase inthe participants’ intercultural competence. The post-training survey also suggestedthat this program has been satisfactory. According to the suggestions of informants,the program has been slightly adjusted to make it more popular and effective.