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Baco Consult offers various training-programs and conducts personnel assessments.
We offer the following specific services:

    Assessment for Expatriation

    This is a selection instrument for the HR-department focussing on the suitability of the candidate-employee and accompanying family members for international and intercultural performance. This assessment contributes to decrease the risk of HR-mismatches and premature and costly repatriation.

    The assessment consists of an in-depth interview on a limited number of subjects and a questionnaire. A specific protocol will be followed.
    How do you select the proper candidate when it comes to his or her intercultural communication skills, adaptability to new and often unfamiliar circumstances, adequate attitudes and sensitivity for both the new outside environment as well as in private family life?
    Baco Consult developed an assessment tool which has been applied successfully now for almost ten years already for several institutions under the Netherlands Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Many candidates and their family-members have been assessed before being send abroad.

    The assessment tool pays specific attention to the suitability for expatriation of the family members as an interdependent unit.

    Procedure: Two internationally experienced interviewers will visit the family at home in its own familiar environment and conduct the assessment in the form of a focused interview of about 2 and a half hours.
    During the interview the following main subjects will be addressed:

      Within one week after the interview a selection report will be drafted, finalized and submitted to the commissioner.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Preparation for expatriation (mentally and culturally)

      We offer companies, government and private institutions our services in preparation for expatriation, both in Dutch and English.
      A 2-day practical and interactive training offers a good understanding by the participants of their role & position and attitudes and behaviour in their new environment.
      Attention will be paid also to the significance of culture and intercultural communication and we will focus on handling stress, culture shock and conflict. The training challenges the participants to get to know themselves under unfamiliar conditions. We use inputs from the trainer and from the participants, we use exercises, power-point presentations, dvd-cases and we wind up the training with a self- assessment and with recommendations and feedback by the trainer.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Preparation for expatriation (practical issues)

      A 1-day practical session, often combined with the 'mental preparation' training described above, offers the participant all the necessary practical information about a longer stay in a developing country in terms of housing; health & medical care; schooling for children; domestic personnel; safety and security; things to bring in case of local unavailability; administrative and register aspects; tax-aspects; etc.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Preparation for expatriation, focusing on the partner

      Aside from the 'mental preparation' which is meant for your employee and for his/her partner, we also provide a special guide for the partner who will basically stay at home in the new duty-station.
      This 'partner-training' will take one day and focuses on all typical issues that are of direct importance for the arriving partner. With this training she/he will be better prepared and able to anticipate the many new and sometimes confronting experiences and challenges. We pay attention to the pressure on the private relationship, to filling the days in a positive way under new conditions, to integrating in the new neighbourhood, to developing new social networks and finding your way as positive as possible as dependent-partner.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Training in Development and International Cooperation Policies

      The international development aid-architecture and policies are currently even more under the spotlights as usual. What are the issues at stake?

      In a one-day seminar of three sessions (morning, afternoon and evening till 22.00 o'clock) the following issues will be discussed:
      Origin and objectives of development aid and actors involved,
      Quick review of policies and practices of Development Cooperation over the decades,
      Time-out for abbreviations, jargon, relevant summits & events, key documents,
      Features of Dutch Development Cooperation policies under Pronk, Herfkens, van Aardenne, Koenders,
      Current Architecture of international development aid: actors, channels, size, international agreements,
      The big dilemmas of Development Cooperation in the current global context and the debate on effectiveness, approaches, new choices etc.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Training in Project Cycle Management & Logical Framework (PCM & LF)

      PCM has been the guiding methodology for development cooperation projects and programs already for decades and it still is. Though new elements are added (like more focus by reducing the number of specific objectives; organizational strengthening through PCM; and dynamic processes of change) and though every method, tool and approach needs to prove its real added value in its actual application in the field, PCM still is a very widely applied approach for planning, designing, formulating and implementing development projects with its crucial monitoring component.

      In a practical training of 3 days all phases are explained and exercised, participatory planning tools are used and a process from brainstorm, via data-collection and research (identification) to design and actual project-formulation will be followed. We work with the logical framework matrix and proceed with the many specific aspects of the actual project implementation after briefly having touched the specific aspects of the financing part of the project. Ample attention will be paid to monitoring the whole project cycle.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Training in Intercultural Negotiation

      Negotiation abroad for business or diplomatic purposes is much more complicated as often thought. One may easily loose new opportunities as a result of misunderstanding or not appreciating enough the social-cultural environment of the international partner at stake.

      Baco Consult offers in a one-day training the necessary insights in what intercultural negotiation is and works on the required cultural sensitivity. In practical exercises the negotiating skills of the participants are tested and commented upon.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Training in Coaching

      Often members of staff, both in the Netherlands as well as in projects and programs in developing countries, have access to the services of an appointed coach who supports them in his or her mixed capacity of coach, mentor and trainer.
      However, these coaches are -in most cases- project managers or coordinators and the coaching is just an additional task, often felt by them as a burden. These project managers are expected to include the coaching responsibilities in their portfolio while they are often not trained as a coach nor did they follow a specific education that enabled them to professionally coach the employees within the project or organization.

      Baco Consult offers insight in what coaching is all about and offers a set of basic skills and tools for senior staff-members with coaching responsibilities. Through this 2-day training they will feel more comfortable in working as a coach and the coaching quality and results will improve.

      For this 2-day training we set a maximum of 10 participants

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Facilitation Organizational Analysis and Organizational Performance

      Many relatively new organizations experience a period of confusion, disagreement or lack of balance between their objectives -strategies- internal structure and decision-making process.
      This is very normal and this can also be experienced after decades of existence without any adaptation to new circumstances.
      To find out what the nature of these organizational problems exactly is we start this session with an analysis of the current vision-mission-goals statement, the internal structure and decision making process.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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      Training and Facilitation in Intercultural Communication and Management

      Smooth operations within every type of organization require open and clear communication lines. Clear communication requires commonly understood language, concepts, ideas, expectations, social relations and a sense of common interest and mutual responsibility. But in our nowadays multi-cultural society the assumption of a commonly understood and accepted framework is no longer valid.
      We need to be open to others, learn to co-operate, try to understand each others' back- ground no matter how 'strange' a person behaves in the eyes of others. We need to invest energy in getting to know the other, in accepting the 'strange' and unfamiliar aspects in some ones' performance, in teambuilding. We need to understand the cultural values and standards, habits and expectations of the others as colleagues in the company.

      Baco Consult facilitates processes of diversity management within all type of the organizations in the Netherlands. Through a guided process at all levels within the company intercultural differences can be understood better and handled in a constructive way. Tensions and conflicts between people with a different cultural background can be avoided and the whole organization will benefit from improved social relationships and a more pleasant working environment.
      Hence this training and facilitation contributes to a constructive handling of Cultural Diversity within the organization.

      For more information contact bacoconsult@planet.nl

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