Travel Kulture, a travel and tourism company in Nigeria has commenced a Global Competence Training in a bid to build in people skills and attitudes necessary for interactions across different cultures and settings.
The two-day training which commenced on Wednesday is expected to help participants bridge the gap of interactions with people across different cultures and respecting diverse cultures.
Speaking during the training session in Lekki, Lagos, Edinyanga Uko, the chief executive officer, Travel Kulture and the facilitator for the Global Competence Training Africa, GCT Africa said having come from a travel profession, she realised that a lot of people had a problem with interacting well with people across different cultures and respecting people’s culture.
“So there was a problem of respecting cultures and there was also that culture shock that a lot of people experience when they travel, especially when I took my groups on trips. So I began to ask questions like, is there a way people can learn how to do things better when they are in a new environment or when they are relating with people across different cultures or backgrounds?”
“So that is how I came into the concept of global competence. With travel, I realised that for me as a person, this skill has really helped me, whether it is with my groups or with my partners. As one that manages a travel company, I have partners from all over the world and how to relate with them and listen is important. There are so many aspects of global competence, whether it’s communication, and with communication comes listening, empathy, suspending judgment and not putting everybody in a box; in that stereotypical box that we usually do,” Uko explained.
She said these skills have helped her and this is something that she intends to pass on to anyone who is part of the global competence training, whether they are traveling or they are using it at home or workplace.
Speaking on what informed the choice of participants for the training, she said, “For this cohort, we are focused on people at work and the young people. Global competence is very important for people that are in the workplace.
“How do they use this to relate well with people across different cultures or backgrounds or orientations? It’s not just cultures, it’s orientation; religion is also part of it. It is also for people who want to travel abroad for studies as well; those are the people we’re focused on,” she said.
She said they have had previous cohorts with young children, teenagers, but this is the first cohort for this year, adding that she plans to have two more cohorts this year.
She said in the next five years, she hopes to have more globally competent set of people in the workplace, schools, people traveling abroad, people that are able to relate better with other people and when they find themselves in new environments.
Ayooluwa Adeniyi, one of the participants of the training said this was her first time of enrolling in a leadership training and she hopes to get better at what she does after the training.
“This training is so important to me because I work as a social media manager and content strategist. The training would help me relate better with other people,” Adeniyi said.
