FROM INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE TO INTEGRATED INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE: A NECESSARY EVOLUTION TO SATISFY THE TRAINING OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN CUBA

Abstract

Higher education faces great challenges for this 21st century. University graduates demand to be equipped with different competencies that allow them to perform efficiently in entities and institutions once they graduate. Intercultural competence is vital for the future professional performance of any graduate, however, for the current graduate reverts a greater relevance due to the diversification of the modes of action, the field of action of the professional and the main professional functions have been transformed into the last years; demands of a very high level of interaction with individuals of different cultural systems, as well as with human resources that come from other cultural systems. The objective of this research is to analyze from the theoretical and methodological point of view the evolution of intercultural competence in recent years and the need to approach it from a holistic and integrated approach in the training of the university student due to the new demands of the model of the professional, with the aim that students are able to interact with entities of different cultural systems simultaneously, in multicultural professional environments, being carriers of their own cultural identity that allows them to become cultural intermediaries.