Online courses – High Speed Training – Cross Cultural Awareness

Online courses – learning and development without even leaving the house

We all need to keep up with the latest developments in our own fields or areas like social media, blogging and so on. A cost and time effective way to do this is to sign up for online courses, which you can often complete at your own convenience.

Our home working reviewers have been busy learning all kinds of skills on online courses to report back on what’s good value for your time and money.

High Speed Training – Cross Cultural Awareness

What is it?
This High Speed Training online course ‘aims to provide an understanding of the different cultural rules – with a focus on Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Saudi-Arabian cultures – that can be encountered in the everyday workplace’.

Design ****
Clear and concise. Nothing fancy, but easy to navigate and nothing to distract from the information being provided. There is voice recording of the text that appears on the screen, and more text appears gradually as the voice reads on. You can turn off this, but you can’t skip through any quicker, so it does ensure that you read all the information!

How easy is it to follow? ****
Clear and easy to navigate through each module with the ability to go back over information if you need to.

Content ****
The course is split into 5 modules, with an assessment of 12 questions at the end, and takes about 2 hours to complete. Modules are Introduction, Intercultural Values, Communication, Managing Teams, and Working Abroad.

I felt this High Speed Training course gave a very comprehensive overview of working cross culturally, focussing on etiquette, general communication and business styles. The course covers the basics from what culture awareness is and the benefits of being culturally aware, to how culturally aware we are as individuals and the negative impact that not taking into account cultural differences can have on our businesses.

It explains how people from different cultures approach business, and therefore how beneficial it is to be able to adapt communication style and business strategy to different cultures. The course also covers how to manage a virtual team and how it’s important to remain culturally aware at this level too.

I felt the content leant more towards the larger, corporate business, than smaller businesses and self employed professionals. A lot of the content is focussed on behaviour in large board and business meetings, negotiation and sales, and managing culturally diverse workforces.

However, there were some very useful facts. For instance, did you know that in India and China you always greet the eldest person first? And that if you’re giving a gift, Japanese culture sees the gift wrapping and presentation more important than the gift itself?

There are a couple of exercises dotted in each of the modules which is helpful. Although some questions were about Mexican and European cultures which are not covered in the course specifically, but by applying general cultural styles, one of the multiple choice answers will fit.

Does it do what it claims? ***
Yes, on a fairly basic level. I had some knowledge of the cultures covered before taking the test, but this did both cement and build on the knowledge I had, and promoted the importance of being culturally aware, in business and outside. I personally may not be doing business in Japan, or China, but I may come into contact with clients, or fellow businesses who are from a different culture.

Worth the investment? ***
At the low cost of £25 plus VAT this High Speed Training course is worth it for someone who just wants a basic overview of cross cultural working.

Overall score **** 3.6

Best for
Businesses who are working, or are planning to work with people from different cultures. Many businesses are now ‘going global’, and cross cultural awareness will become a must.

Although I have mentioned that this High Speed Training course leans towards the larger business, any business will gain some awareness from participating. Being aware of other cultures is probably something we all think we know enough about on a social level, but this course does show that on a business level we need to be much more savvy in order to grow and sustain mutually beneficial, and above all, respectful relationships.