Study Methodology:
Philosophy of studies
A formative program of e-learning can be focused in many forms. In our case, the philosophy is that the student acts from the first day, as if he was the
export director in a company. Like this, he is conscious that he is
acting in a highly competitive Global market. An export
director does not take a passive part, but adopts an active and dynamic role.
This is the philosophy that students must adopt to study with us, the
objective is to give a leading role to the student. This new approach
hopes to cause the student, to play an active role, convert him to an "intellectual
partner", mobilizing his energy, experiences and creativity by means of forum debates, analysis and resolution of business cases, confrontation of opposed perceptions, presentation of discrepant experiences, etc...
The student must accept this challenge, he must not think that their tutors
will pursue him to see if he has finished the exercises or has any questions; on
the contrary, the student must lead this process, if he needs the tutors, they always will be available, but, as in the real world of international
Business, he cannot expect the tutors to prompt him.
Our experience shows, that this work principle is most adequate in
International business education, and conforms to the international educations
ideas witch will be concluded when the European Higher Education Space
becomes effective. The objective is to develop the efficiency of abilities. From
this, the idea is that, self-learning which gives great importance to study
based on
personal effort. In order to ease student and labour mobility, the studies
will be compared according to difficulty. For that reason the comparative unit
of measurement used will be that of the European credit. Thus our emphasis is
developing this type of study.
The student must not think that he will learn by "just being there". He
must make an effort, just as one would with a traditional course, as well
as completing the proposed exercises. These are fundamental in our model of continuous evaluation. As far as possible we recommended that students
adapt the exercises proposed to their company (if he were working in one) as
well as adapting the exercises to the student’s country.
Almost all the aspects of the international business (Incoterms, logistics, etc.), are possible to study without great
problems, but there is one in particular, the
intercultural negotiation, that
studying is necessary to practice. Only by practicing negotiation and
interacting with people of other cultures will give us this type of experience.
The intercultural richness of the global community of EENI students is
ideal for the practice of intercultural negotiation. We invited all students to
interact together as a fundamental part in the development of international
Business.
It is also necessary to reflect upon the environment in which we will move:
we are working in a digital environment, very different from our
traditional environment. The "intercultural distance" and digital environment
sometimes complicate communications. We must always considerer these two
characteristics, and before any doubt or misunderstanding that the best
and most effective thing to do is to discuss it.
As we have already mentioned previously, this methodology seeks to develop
abilities. It is proven that companies not only look for people capable of leadership qualities but also with abilities such as: competent communication, well organized and disciplined in the working environment, sense of the
responsibility, good ethical behavior, enterprising disposition, contribution of ideas when problem solving (creativity), etc. Our approach includes all of theses aspects, because to leave aside theses demands of the labour market would
be to turn our back on reality.
The results are clear: students who have finished our courses, in general, have improved their work prospects, either ascending in the company or finding a
better position in another company.
International Business
