International Business Pilot at HAN UAS

As part of the CLIL4ALL project, HAN University of Applied Sciences is conducting two pilots this semester. The first pilot is our International Business Project, discussed in more detail below. In the second pilot, HAN students play the role of “sharks” in Karelia UAS’ Project Management pilot. For more information on this pilot, please see CLIL4ALL Pilot Implementations at Karelia UAS.

International Business Project

The International Business Project is integrated into the third year of the Business Administration program at HAN. Students work together in groups of four to explore the possibilities of an international expansion for a real company. The project is facilitated by five lecturers, each specializing in a specific area (Business English, Marketing, Law, Cross-Cultural Management, and Economics).

Throughout this project, students are addressed not as students but as colleagues, with an expectation to perform as junior internationalization experts. For instance, they are responsible for finding a company that is in need of and willing to participate in such a project.

Approach

Groups are required to update the Business English lecturer and one of the content lecturers twice during the first seven weeks. They achieve this by conducting two progress meetings. Other groups are present during these meetings as well so they can ask questions and give feedback. The content lecturer focuses on content-related feedback, while the Business English lecturer emphasizes language and presentation skills.

At the end of the project, the groups present their findings and advice to the Business English lecturer and two or three content lecturers. A company representative may also attend these presentations. Additionally, groups submit a written report, but it is important to note that this report is not part of the CLIL pilot.

Feedback So Far

As we approach the end of the project, with a few presentations still to go, we look forward to gathering feedback from the students. We do, however, have some preliminary findings from the lecturers:

• It’s much more fun having students update us in person than in a written report!
• It will be very interesting to see how the groups incorporate the feedback I gave during the progress meetings. Will it be to the same extent as when I give written feedback?
• The discussions we had during the progress meetings were very valuable. You can tell who really understands the topic and who still needs more help. The students can also explain concepts to each other.
• It is nice to see how the students give feedback to each other. Some find it difficult to give negative feedback, so we have to make sure we spend more time on this.

We are very eager to learn how our students experienced the project and the CLIL approach. Once we have more insights, we will update you here!