Recent figures show that about one third of all employed persons in advanced countries work remotely in virtual teams. As recent Covid-19 pandemic exposed, in times of crisis virtual teams become only means of functioning even for activities of intrinsically oriented organizations. Being able to work in virtual teams is one of basic skills essential for employability of prospective graduates. However, while different aspects of digital transformation are covered in educational programmes of higher education institutions (HEIs) and even some high schools, the clear focus on building of skills for work in virtual teams is lacking. This should come as no surprise as currently the knowledge of the virtual team working skills is only emerging, consisting of two more profound scientific articles based on desk research and surveys (published in 2016, and 2017 by S. Krumm and colleagues). The problem with these knowledge resources is that they have mainly used top-down quantitative approach in the knowledge generation which delimits what we can now about the phenomena of virtual team working skills needed in the future. For European society to prosper in a digital era there is the need to empower European youth to harness benefits of work in virtual, multi-cultural teams in a bottom up approach. The main aim of the project VIBES (Virtual Business Skills Empowerment) is to enhance students virtual teamworking competences to cope better in today`s global working environment and create and develop entrepreneurial opportunities for the European single market. The project will deliver study module (s) with process descriptions of the learning outcomes, learning methods as integrated processes, lists of supportive tools and assessment methods and criteria. We will use “best practice “from each country to start with and share and develop collaborative approaches to building virtual teams’ capabilities. By co-creating innovative approaches to support collaborative capabilities, networking opportunities, and innovation and strategic skills development, our aim is to support two targeted areas. We aim to develop the innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities of the students and to support the extension of these capabilities and modules as potential development resources for SME’s that need innovative intrapreneurs. The point is to develop and extend innovative virtual teams to produce new entrepreneurial business capabilities and opportunities, while developing a more sustainable individual skillset that can more readily adapt and create emerging market opportunities. Rather than training people for existing roles which are rapidly becoming obsolete VIBES aims at developing an entrepreneurial attitude to understand that a constant evolution of individual and organizational capabilities is needed as a response to emergent opportunities. We believe that improving the capabilities of individuals to effectively participate in virtual transnational teams is a viable approach to sustainable economic development. Virtual collaboration space will be created on an existing platform. In this space, we share the learning materials after which the space starts to live its own life: teachers implement the module, share their experiences, and suggest ideas how to do better and differently. In addition, multiplier effect should serve the purpose of presenting intellectual results and transaction for interorganizational as well as intercultural collaboration and exchange. The project VIBES (Virtual Business Skills Empowerment) aims to tackle two types of skills relevant for future employability of young Europeans with university and high school education, in a digital era and the ability of companies to tap into global pool of talent: The ability to work in virtual multi-cultural teams. Challenges of work in virtual teams are multifaceted as such teams cope with lack of conventional trust building mechanisms, barriers to communication are significant due to absence of visual cues such as body language and facial expressions and team conflict resolution is often more challenging that in conventional teams. Rapport building and coping with feelings of isolation further add to the long list of challenges associated with working in virtual teams. Particularly important issue in contemporary context is the multi-cultural dimension. Cultural diversity poses challenge in business communication by itself but its relevance is even more emphasized in virtual environment. Success of such teams depends on the ability of individual teams to define goals and roles but also to possess management skills relevant for consistency, individual support, empathy, and management of cross-cultural differences. Functioning of virtual teams depends on technology and individuals engaged in such teams should possess sufficient level of technological knowledge for efficient and effective communication and performing of tasks with other team members.
VIBES wanted to create educational and training content applicable in real world conditions of work in virtual teams closely aligned with priorities of Erasmus programme (2020): - Fighting youth unemployment and providing youth with the skills required by the labour market, p. 5, VIBES created content to empower young Europeans with skills relevant for labour markets of tomorrow - Improving the level of key competences and skills through cooperation between the worlds of education, training and work, p.26 - VIBES gathered academia, high schools, NGOs and business sector to provide unique educational content and equip students with basic skills for employability in a digital era - Greater understanding and responsiveness to cultural diversity, p. 967 - VIBES consortium developed and validated a content that addressed multi-cultural work in virtual teams. This enhanced understanding of target group about the cultural diversity and contributed to embracing it as part of European identity. - More strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) in education and training, p. 97 - VIBES created OER platform with all project materials and guidelines for their implementation in different socio-economic contexts.
Contemporary business environment is shaped with two interrelated processes, the fragmentation of value creation process and increasing penetration of digital technologies in every aspect of human living. Together these processes shape the business models of modern organizations and their demand for specific skills of employees. Some recent survey showed increase of 22 percent in telecommuting from 2017 to 2018. US figures show that about one third of all employed persons in US work remotely in virtual teams. As recent Covid-19 pandemic exposed, in times of crisis virtual teams become only means of functioning even for activities of intrinsically oriented organizations. It follows from there that being able to work in virtual teams is one of basic skills essential for employability of prospective graduates. However, while different aspects of digital transformation are covered in educational programmes of higher education institutions (HEIs) and even some high schools, the clear focus on building of skills for work in virtual teams is lacking. For European society to prosper in a digital era there is the need to empower European youth to harness benefits of work in virtual, multi-cultural teams.