Students in Northland Learning Global Skills

Twelve of our Northland student ambassadors have completed the AFS Global Competence Certificate (GCC).

This is an online course with weekly virtual workshops facilitated by Massey University. The course provides students with an opportunity to interact and connect directly with other students from New Zealand and a diverse range of other nationalities.

Photos show Hillian and Kaye from Whangarei Girls’ High School taking part in their second GCC workshop.

Massey University has teamed up with AFS and Education New Zealand (ENZ) to facilitate this new online initiative. The NZGCC offers students the opportunity to learn about themselves, learn about other cultures, make international connections and become more globally competent, despite the current travel restrictions.

The online programme fosters essential lifelong global “power skills” and focuses on helping students find ways to build bridges in multicultural settings.

Here’s what our students who completed the course had to say…

“It was an insightful course that came at the perfect opportunity for me. I was able to dwell on my thoughts with guidance from the modules and arrive at certain realizations.

Some of my takeaways from the course include differences in communication styles (high and low context communication styles) and where they stem from, the influence culture plays in them etc, it bridged the gap in understanding a lot of previous conversations. Another one was the module on suspending judgment, at the time I didn’t see the point of the exercise but since then I’ve observed a difference in my thinking in everyday situations.

I’d definitely recommend this course for everybody as it helps with personal insight as well as our interactions with others.” – Ruth

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“I learnt about myself and the type of person I am. I also learnt about other people’s cultures and how they act. Now I have a better understanding about people from different countries and use that in my daily life.” – Memee

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” I have done other stuff like this on my own but it was much better having someone to guide me doing this like my teacher Mrs. Fezzah and the videos and modules that I have been given to do. Plus socialising and discussing this with other people out of your friend group, helps me to get out of my comfort zone and learn properly about the different cultures.

Thank you for this because I came out of my shell. And I have become more understanding of the emotions, vocals and actions of other cultures. I have gained more knowledge of the things about my identity, my culture and the things around me. I will continue to be a good role model to others and carry on the knowledge I have received and gained from this program. Thank you once again for this opportunity. I had a great time.” – Kaye Pembid

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“In the GCC programme, I learnt that we shouldn’t stereotype before we know other people with different cultures to us. Also, I learnt that we use different degrees of context (high and low context) to communicate, we should respect and try to use their way to communicate at first.” – Hillian