Klaipėdos universitetas

In this article authors present the development of intercultural competences as a part of study process. Organization of study process in the modern world is not confined within one institution or one country. Possibilities to study in different joint programmes or choose Erasmus courses are open for many students. Not only the language abilities, but also intercultural awareness and competences influence the quality of communication and level of understanding by the representatives of other cultures. Intercultural competences are one of the very important abilities that are also presented as the outcomes of new methods of education that should prepare students to cope with intercultural environment. Study process requires students to obtain various abilities (application of knowledge, research, special, personal, social). All these abilities are particularly important in conducting comparative research and adopting foreign experience. The article emphasizes that intercultural competencies in modern study process can be assessed on two levels: the level of intercultural communication and intercultural level of scientific research.

This article presents findings of the study on the structure of social representation of lecturers’ activities and their dynamics on the basis of the credibility of a source of information. The study is sought to find out what constitutes central and peripheral elements of social representation of lecturers’ activities in view of survey participants (undergraduate programme students of Klaipėda University), whether the said elements change upon reliable and unreliable sources of information, and what determines potential dynamics of elements of the representation. Answers to the above questions will significantly help to understand lecturer-student relationships, to change negative or adverse communication attitudes into positive ones. Insights of this study can be applied in lecturers’ activities so as to better understand today’s students, a role of lecturers, formation of positive attitudes in students towards lecturers’ activities and communication.

The aim of the article is to give a social portrait of Lithuanian youth in the context of youth policy, and to consider such unsettled segments as unemployment, emigration (migration), the attitude towards family, social participation in societal possibilities, and the strengthening of intergenerational solidarity. These problematic segments cause the social exclusion of young people, thus requiring an appropriate strategy for training professionals who work with young people and who can develop models for the positive (skilful) socialisation of young people. The article evaluates Lithuanian and European youth policy guidelines and success in solving problems, as well as the response to public expectations regarding participation in future life. It provides an analysis of existing feasibility studies that reveal the current situation, and insights into the question. The results obtained foster the formulation of a strategy for training social professionals focused on youth work. The article concentrates on a new European Union programme, the ‘European Solidarity Corps’, which aims to give young people opportunities to contribute to local and global problem-solving within the framework of personal and professional career design for youth. It has been prepared within the framework of the project ‘Social Professions for Youth Education in the Context of European Solidarity’*, with the participation of Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish universities that deliver programmes for training social professionals.

Society’s value system forms gradually, and every society has its own culture, its own dominant value system. Fundamental values such as honesty, fairness, compassion and kindness have been preserved through the centuries, and they are the core values of today. Organization values are invisible organizational culture, the deepest layer of the organization. The internal culture of institutions is the system of values and traditions, work environment, which is an important condition for staff satisfaction and performance efficiency. Latvian public administration declared value is incorporated into the code of ethics, also included in the organization documents, thus addressing not only their employees, but also society as a whole, what is the profession of the required values, as well as what human values should be never lost. In this study, in order to identify the predominant values and intrinsic values of institutions based on publicly available data and information sources, Latvian State Administration Policy declared value are discussed and analyzed.

The article presents the concept of the cross-border method that was developed in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme project. The aim of this method is to provide students on PhD/Mg programmes with theoretical knowledge and practical competencies on how to properly develop and conduct research on social and health issues of the elderly in care institutions and in the family environment by using the cross-border method through collaboration and the transfer of innovation. This method was constructed as an attempt to understand the challenges of an ageing society in the modern world, and to be able to assess them in research thereof from both intercultural and comparative perspectives. In order to adopt innovations and to transfer experience in the context of addressing the problems of an ageing society, there is a potential to contribute to the stability of social protection and the accessibility of social services for the elderly. The article presents the concept of the method as one of the results of the project, and as a part of the long-term scientific contributions to revealing the importance of international cooperation and innovation in meeting the challenges of an ageing society. A properly chosen method and well-conducted studies show the essence of the phenomenon of an ageing society and its patterns. The methods determine the quality and reliability of the knowledge of the research subject, and open up opportunities for developing political, learning and care strategies for the social protection of an ageing society in the context of demographic change.