The digitalization of communication has had a significant impact on business communication. The research firm IDC has estimated that the number of mobile workers accessing enterprise systems worldwide reach a number corresponding to more than a third of the world’s workforce (about 35%) by 2013. Since the importance of mobile work is growing there is a need for developing adequate communication literacy in multicultural environments as a part of lifelong learning. The new communication literacy refers to the new communication and language skills needed in virtual and mobile communication as well as to cultural awareness, digital skills and knowledge, new media attitude. The integration of a joint digital competence description in curricula will enhance the uniformity of studies at the European level and facilitate the implementation of joint study units in Europe at the EQF levels 6-7. The CoMoViWo project will focus on the communication literacy that both employees and managers need in virtual and mobile work communication at European level. The project partners will first conduct a review of current practices in their countries and define the new communication literacy. The consortium will produce virtual training modules (6 ECTS) in English and Spanish for teaching virtual and mobile working life communication. The virtual training modules will include the content, tools, design, methods and manuscript. The modules are piloted and, finally, a Teacher’s Handbook is published in the project Wiki and on its website. The modules are common for degree students and staff training. The content and methods of the modules will be decided based on the research overview, survey and piloting feedback and collaboration with working life expert. All materials produced during the project are Open source educational resources. The project aims to find out the level (CERF, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) of communication literacy needed business life. In addition, the project focuses on exploring what kind of literacy training the enterprises and students need (content, communication technology, learning methods) and consequently the skills the teachers need to be able to prepare the students for virtual/ mobile communication in working life. CoMoViWo project is coordinated by Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS). The partner HEIs are: Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) from Spain, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) from the UK and Politechnika Gdanska (GUT) from Poland. The partner responsible for the quality assurance and dissemination of the project results is an international language association International Certificate Conference e.V. (ICC). The participants work in close cooperation with their local/regional/national associated partners (two associated partners/partner organization). The consortium will use the communication channels and methods chosen together to support multicultural virtual communication. The communication training modules will be based on collaborative learning and use of communication tools of real working life communication situations. The active involvement of the associated partners at all stages of the project, especially in the module development, brings additional value to the project by ensuring the authenticity of the materials and communication practices. The associated partners will also have an important role in the dissemination and exploitation of the project results. The CoMoViWo project will provide novel, modernised training modules for HEIs and enterprises and suggest changes to curricula at EQF levels 6-7. The project results and outcomes will benefit all the participants by increasing their competence in digital literacy, networking and collaboration. In addition, students benefit by improving their employability and possibilities for mobility in Europe. Teachers, on the other hand, can enhance their professional skills by updating their knowledge and understanding of the skills needed in business life today. Teachers’ lifelong learning and professional development will be supported by describing the new communication literacy and publishing training modules and a Handbook for Teaching Virtual and Mobile Communication. The impact of the CoMoViWo project on enterprises extends to all organizational levels from employees to management. The project benefits enterprises by providing them with staff whose skills meet the requirements on multicultural communication skills in virtual and mobile working life and thus facilitates the enterprises’ international business operations and enhances their productivity and success in the global market. This project will help working life representatives to develop their communication literacy in virtual and mobile communication according to the concept of lifelong learning.
The changes in working life and development of communication technology have led to a need to teach new kinds of digital communication and language skills, cultural awareness and new media attitude. Studies (Varhelahti 2017) show that literacy skills of staff do not meet the requirements of mobile/virtual work and there is a gap between the skills of the graduates and the expectations of the employers. CoMoViWo responded to this by developing methods and learning modules for teaching skills needed in intercultural working contexts when using either English or Spanish as a lingua franca in mobile or virtual communication. CoMoViWo aimed to improve the employability of students by developing relevant communication literacy thus providing skilled staff for virtual work and to improve the competitiveness of companies with skilled staff and enhance sustainability through virtual work as well as to support HEI’s adaptation of required changes. A review and research was conducted to describe the communication literacy needed in virtual/mobile work in a multilingual and –cultural environment, to define the communication literacy the teachers need and to suggest forms of collaboration between working life and HEIs. The learning materials produced are published on Canvas and are freely available for self-study purposes or for teachers to use and adapt in their teaching. The results have been published in several articles. The consortium consisted of organisations from 5 European countries: Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS, Finland), Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (UPV, Spain), Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU, UK), Gdansk University of Technology (GUT, Poland) and the International Language Association ICC based in Germany. TUAS was the coordinating organisation, UPV was the lead partner in the Output 1 (Review and Research), MMU was responsible for the Output 2 (Module development), GUT for Output 3 (Teacher’s handbook) and practical arrangements for the piloting. ICC was responsible for the internal quality assurance of the project and coordinating the dissemination activities The project started with a review and research to obtain information about the real needs detected in virtual communication in the workplace. The analysis of the survey results provided the necessary feedback for the design of the prototype of intensive modules to improve the use of a foreign language in a virtual/mobile context in the workplace. The definition of the level of communication literacy needed in virtual communication situations in a multicultural environment was published in an article, the materials are planned for learners at B2 or higher CERF level.The focus was also on exploring what kind of literacy training the enterprises and students need and on the skills the teachers need to be able to prepare the students for virtual/mobile communication in working life. Based on the review of current practices in the partner countries, the new communication literacy was defined and the definition was published in an article by Pérez-Sabater & al. The consortium produced virtual training modules in English and Spanish for teaching virtual and mobile working life communication. The modules were piloted and a Teacher’s Handbook was published. The content and methods of the modules were decided based on the research overview, survey and piloting feedback and collaboration with working life experts. All materials produced during the project are Open source educational resources and freely available on the Canvas platform or the project website, the modules were planned in a way that they are suitable for self-study, for degree students in teacher-led studies and for staff training. The project results have benefited the teachers and students by increasing their competence in digital literacy, networking and collaboration. The students benefited by practicing communication skills needed in a virtual multicultural working environment. Teachers enhanced their professional skills by updating their knowledge of the skills needed today. Output 1 provided a good background for this work and helped to ensure that the skills the course materials focus on are relevant. The project benefit enterprises by providing training materials that are created for improving the skills needed in multicultural communication in virtual/mobile working life. We wanted to provide the materials also for those who want to improve their skills independently and decided to create materials suitable also for self-study. We realized that studying communication without having a group to communicate with is challenging and limits the kinds of tasks that you can use and, therefore, the course also offers alternative implementation ways in the sections called teacher-led activities. The themes provoked vivid discussion in the events organized thus contributing to raising awareness of the issue among the academic staff and people working in business.