Bow Valley

Intercultural Competence

Facilitator Training Program

Next Session: Winter 2025

"I found it challenging, it made me question my assumptions and put me out of my comfort zone. I've recommended the program to my colleagues and friends."



- Winter 2023 Participant

“Provided by a skilled and knowledgeable facilitation team, this training was engaging and highly informative. Great effort was taken to ensure participants felt safe, valued, and heard.”

- Winter 2021 Participant

The Intercultural Competence Facilitator Training Program is a unique train-the-trainer program for the Bow Valley.

The program teaches:

  • Intercultural awareness and sensitivity

  • Intercultural knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviour, with emphasis on skills for intercultural communication

  • Skills for facilitating informal intercultural competence training in the workplace

The program includes 30-35 hours of online and self-directed learning.

 

Who is this training program for?

  • Bow Valley residents (all immigration statuses welcome) or individuals currently employed by a Bow Valley-based business

  • Human Resources professionals

  • Managers responsible for staff training and development

  • Developing leaders, especially people with diverse cultural backgrounds — experience of moving to Canada or working in another culture is an asset for this program. We encourage employers to enroll both an established leader and a developing leader in the program.

  • Members of workplace Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) or Employee Resource groups

  • Volunteers responsible for board or volunteer development

What is Intercultural Competence?

Intercultural competence is a range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that help you work effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds than your own. This is an increasingly sought after and foundational skill for many work environments.

Woman with laptop in a team meeting in an office

What Participants Are Saying:

"The Intercultural Facilitator Course was very engaging with relevant and important subject matter.

The facilitators are experts in their fields with a lot of real life experience to share.

The program provides a great framework for employers to address organization specific needs regarding intercultural workplaces.

You will finish this course inspired to make change with the tools to share these important lessons in your workplace!"

-Winter 2021 Participant

Is this program for you?

Register for this program if:

  • You are a resident of the Bow Valley (all immigration statuses welcome) or currently employed by a Bow Valley-based business

  • You would like to develop your own intercultural skill set

  • You are committed to helping your workplace become more inclusive and equitable

  • You can dedicate the time to complete the program and bring what you’ve learned back to your team

  • You have the support of your employer to lead workplace training on intercultural competence after you’ve completed the program

Your Investment

The Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP) is providing this training at no financial cost to participants. Our goal is to grow intercultural competence in all sectors throughout the community. In return for this free training, we ask and expect that participants who enroll in this program commit to around 35 hours of online and self-directed learning to complete the program.

Why join this program?

This is a unique opportunity to develop important intercultural skills to work effectively with the Bow Valley’s diverse community.

Benefits for organizations:

  • Overcome communication roadblocks, strengthen your team, and improve staff retention

  • Better meet the needs of diverse clientele

  • Reduce reliance on ad-hoc, external training by developing leaders who can offer in-house training

  • Complete a Workplace Inclusion Charter commitment — a big step towards being honoured as one of the Bow Valley’s most inclusive employers

 

Benefits for participants:

  • Develop a practical, increasingly sought after, and essential skill set to thrive in the global job market

  • Overcome communication roadblocks, strengthen your team, and improve staff retention

  • Receive a Certificate of Completion

Training Format & Schedule

Training Schedule

  • 25 hours virtual workshops (10 x 2.5 hour sessions)

  • 4-5.5 hours of reading, assignments, and journaling

  • 1.5-3 hours of one on one coaching with the program instructors

 

Winter 2025 Program Schedule

Our next session of the ICFT program will be during Winter 2025. Please get in touch with us for more information.

 

Your Commitment

The Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP) is providing this training at no cost to participants. Our goal is to grow intercultural competence in all sectors throughout the community. In return for this free training, we ask and expect that participants who enroll in this program commit to:

  1. Attend all of the workshop sessions

  2. Complete the assigned readings and activities, including preparing and presenting a final facilitation project

  3. Do your best to schedule a training session or plan other actions to share what you’ve learned with your colleagues

“Great program to encourage reflection and growth so we can better come together as a diverse community.”

- Winter 2021 Participant

Ready to Sign Up?

Sign Up

Intercultural Competence Facilitator Training Program

Sign up to receive information and join our waitlist for the next session.

Protecting Your Information: We are collecting this personal information under the authority of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act, section 33(c). This information will be used for the purposes of the Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP). If you have any questions about how we collect or use this information, read our Privacy Policy or contact Natasha Lay at bvip@banff.ca or on (403) 431-0705.

Your Instructors

About The Intercultural Education Program Team

To host this program, we are bringing in the Intercultural Education Program Team at Catholic Social Services (CSS), one of Alberta’s largest immigrant serving agencies.

The CSS Team have more than 20 years of experience providing intercultural competence training across the province. They are one of the few immigrant-serving agencies in Alberta with a team specifically responsible for training both newcomer clients and staff on intercultural awareness and communication. CSS brings its training experience and frontline perspective to the project, making them the right fit for this training program.

 

What Participants Are Saying:

“I was hesitant about this training because of the big time commitment, but I am very glad I did it.

It has opened my eyes to learn about myself and my own biases and triggers, and at the same time helped me to understand differences with other cultures. No culture is better than any other, we are just different.

I now feel more equipped to communicate and work with people from different cultures, which is important in the Bow Valley now and in the future.”

- Winter 2021 Participant