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Define the purpose and cultural scope of your environmental culture scanning exercise. What is your objective? Are you looking for employment, developing a general career plan, or seeking educational opportunities? Are you scanning an industry or an institution? Which region are you interested in? Is it your own region or another? Print the Culture Scanning Worksheet and write your answers in full. For example:

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'In what ways do the cultural habits and expectations in French-speaking Belgium affect my employability in the solar energy sector?'

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Scan the cultural factors in your chosen region. Search for information online and in other sources. Add your findings for each area to the Culture Scanning Worksheet. Add these to the 'Observation' column. You can either write your findings directly in the table, or first write them on sticky notes and then add them to the table. Sticky notes are easy to move around or remove if needed.

 

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Start by scanning social and cultural norms. These include such as work ethic expectations, attitudes towards hierarchy, communication style (direct or indirect), punctuality norms, gender roles and expectations around education. You can change or add dimensions in any area based on your purpose.

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• Community habits and lifestyles: For example, daily routines, family expectations, local attitudes towards moving for work, informal networks, and the 'who you know' culture.

• Cultural values influencing careers: For example, preferences for stability versus risk-taking, entrepreneurship versus traditional employment, the value placed on credentials versus skills, and attitudes towards lifelong learning.

• Language and identity factors: For example, dominant languages and dialects and their social significance, as well as expectations of multilingualism.

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Scan the educational and labour environment next.

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• Education culture: For example, access to education; the prestige of certain fields; and cultural barriers to certain professions.

• Labour market culture and norms: For example, hiring practices; working habits; informal expectations, such as internships and apprenticeships; employers' attitudes towards foreign qualifications; and cultural preferences in CVs and interviews.

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Continue to scan your internal environment.

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• Personal strengths and weaknesses: For example, consider whether your skills align with local expectations, and assess your cultural adaptability, language proficiency, and social capital, such as your networks.

• Educational background: How your education is perceived locally, and whether there are any gaps between your training and local norms.

• Personal values: Do your values align with the local work culture? Are you comfortable with local communication styles?

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Identify patterns and trends for each scanned area, and add them to the Culture Scanning Worksheet. Think, for example, what are the recurring cultural expectations, barriers that appear across multiple sources, and trends in education and employment.

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Analyse the impact of external factors on your career or education. Write these in the 'Impact' column of the Culture Scanning Worksheet. Think how cultural factors affect your employability and educational opportunities, and identify the cultural habits that either support or hinder your goals.

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• Write down the positive impacts first and mark them with a plus sign.

• Move on to adding the negative and hindering impacts and mark them with a minus sign.

• Lastly, think how to turn the negatives into opportunities.