Notwithstanding a growing interest in intercultural communication in the 21st century, most professionals in the Low Countries (and elsewhere) have not been trained in this field during their education. Many managers believe that experience is sufficient to bring an international assignment to a favourable conclusion, for instance an agreed contract. What’s more, in most cases those managers will have succeeded in even the most complex assignments, thanks to their experience and their intuition, guided by the motto “practice makes perfect”. This doesn’t alter the fact that coherent training would be an extra asset for this group of people. For young professionals entering professional life, it has become a very important issue. Intercultural competence can be trained and acquired, as will be described hereafter.
