PROMINENCE (2017 – 2020) is an international project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education, which has proved to be a successful example of higher education internationalization. In a business environment of ongoing European and global integration, this project intends to meet the growing requirements of the corporate sector. As a result, the project is facilitating economic universities by adding a competitive edge to their business graduates training.  Working in close partnership with the corporate sector, this project aims at developing intercultural competences, business skills and leadership skills of students and faculty members from seven European universities, implementing innovative training methods.

Key outcomes (Sep 2017 – June 2019):

• To promote PROMINENCE, the team launched awareness raising campaigns and selected students from the University of Economics – Varna by assessing their English communication skills. The selected students took part in the project intensive programmes in Bratislava (2018) and Aschaffenburg (2019)

• A one-week Intensive Programme Different Worlds, Different Languages: Getting to Grips with Cultural Diversity, was conducted at the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, in April 2018 (https://www.ue-varna.bg/bg/article.aspx?id=21507).

• Representatives of all seven universities project partners conducted a two-day transnational project meeting in October 2018, hosted by the University of Economics – Varna. The project partners  shared a highly positive feedback on the way the meeting had been  prepared and conducted. (https://www.ue-varna.bg/article.aspx?id=22865).

• A one-week Intensive Programme Managing and Leading in Different Cultures was prepared and conducted at the Technical University of Aschaffenburg, Germany, in April 2019 (https://www.ue-varna.bg/bg/article.aspx?id=23345).

The students were awarded three credits for successfully completing the intensive programmes, they established contacts with students from other universities and had exciting meetings with corporate representatives. The participants provided highly positive feedback on the training that helped them develop business skills and leadership skills along with building on their intercultural competences.

• The project partner universities conducted two surveys. The first one assessed students’ intercultural competences and the second survey assessed SME’s leadership skills in a multicultural environment. The University of Economics – Varna team contributed to writing and disseminating the surveys. To conduct the second survey, the team used the university Career Days Forum to network with SMEs and the team also networked in the social media.
• An Intercultural Competences and Leadership e-book is being currently written by the seven university teams. This university team has already written and submitted a chapter on leadership theories for the e-book.  
• The project was presented during the First International Staff Week, hosted by the International Cooperation Office at the University of Economics in June 2019.

The project final stage (Sep 2019 – June 2020) involves:

• Transnational project meeting, Katowice, Poland, Sep 2019
• A one-week Intensive Programme Practicing Cultural and Emotional Intelligence across Cultures, Annecy, France, April 2020, following another student selection process
• Writing study guides and study modules for PROMINENCE online interactive learning environment for intercultural competences and leadership skills. It is intended to be used by the partner universities, SMEs and other stakeholders.
• Academic conference in Seinäjoki, Finland, June 2020, with project teams contributing
• International and national academic publications

PROMINENCE interdisciplinary team members at the University of Economics – Varna:

Petar Petrov, PhD, team leader; Diana Miteva, Senior Lecturer; Kristana Ivanova, Senior Lecturer; Miroslava Ivanova is project coordinator, and Gergana Naneva is project accountant.