Flexchange
Do you organise the International Exchange
of students, trainees, au pairs or temporary workers?
Then let us help you to streamline this process.
FLEXchange was developed based on more than 30 years of experience in international exchange to meet the requirements of exchange with more than 40 countries and regions, and dealing with tens of thousands of staff, volunteers, students and workers.
Let FLEXchange help you gather all the required documents for outbound or inbound students and workers, to certify workers and host addresses, to plan future exchanges and keep track of existing ones.
FLEXchange provides two separate applications:
- The Hub, for managers and for your own staff, to accept applications, to certify involved people and to manage all aspects of your exchange process.
- The Portal, which is provided to people involved with individual exchanges. The Portal provides them with information on the actual status of an exchange, from flight details to accommodation and from medical situations to evaluations by school or employer.
Below you find just some of the functionality that is offered in the standard version of FLEXchange and we can create a customized version of FLEXchange to meet any specific requirements of your organisation.
Contact Paul or Al @flexchange.world if you want to discuss how FLEXchange can help your organisation by streamlining international exchanges.
FLEXchange Process
Within FLEXchange we recognize 8 important phases of each International Exchange.
The Application phase, during which candidates and partners are evaluated if they fit your program.
After Acceptance, all the information is collected to enable Matching to an employer, an accepted hosting family or a school.
The next phase is the Planning during which all the documents are collected for visa, health acceptance, school admission, etc.
Once everything has been approved, we enter the Outbound phase where the exchange is confirmed and travel arrangements are booked.
At the destination, the employer, host family or school welcome the participant during the Inbound phase. While being abroad, all parties involved are monitored and provide regular Reporting on how the exchange is going and after the participant has returned home, the Evaluation of all parties completes a successful exchange.
Common functions
Each phase provides steps that have to be completed. These steps can include interviews with participants, employers or host families, the collection of documents, training of participants, and certification of staff and volunteers.
In Flexchange all these steps follow the same procedures and Flexchange offers the same functionality everywhere.
- All menu options and input fields have HELP text to explain the functionality or requirement.
- Every procedure is visualized so it the status can be seen at a glance.
- Uploading, evaluation and approval of all documents and pictures take place in the same way.
- Information on the screen can easily be sorted in different ways by clicking on the column header of listings.
- Detailed information is immediately provided by clicking on the entry of each entry of a list
- Every Phase has its own Alerts that initiate e-mails or text messages to inform people of upcoming activities and (missed) deadlines.
- Each staff member logging on sees Alerts that apply to participants, employers, host families or schools that fall under his or her responsibility.
- Clickable Graphs enable managers to quickly oversee current and future exchanges and give access to historical information.
This structured approach makes it easy for your staff to become familiar with FLEXchange while providing up-to-date information on the status per country, region, participant, host family or staff member.
Functionality per phase
If you are familiar with International Exchanges, then you will recognise many of the items that you find in FLEXchange.
Each participant, employer, host family, staff member or volunteer has a visual representation of the steps that apply to them with colours indicating the status of each step. Statuses include: Requested, Received, Evaluated, Accepted, Passed, and Completed.
1. Application
Evaluation of candidates and partners are evaluated to see if they fit your program.
- Automated Application Forms
- Picture uploading of participants, hosts, and accommodations
- Uploading of documents
- Interview assignment and status
- Supervisor acceptance
- Registration of preferences such as locations and type of environment.
- Dietary and religious requirements
2. Acceptance
Once accepted, the information to enable the matching is collected.
3. Matching
Finding the right employer, host family or school and guide introductions.
- Matching of participants with potential employers or host families.
- Confidential information exchange between potential matches.
- Personal introductions after matches are confirmed
- Request for required documents.
- Status of all steps required to start the exchange.
- Date planning and confirmation of all parties.
- Electronic exchange of documents wherever possible.
4. Planning
Collecting the documents for visa, health acceptance, school admission and planning the dates and the exchange in detail.
5. Outbound
Confirmation of the exchange and booking of travel arrangements.
- Arranging insurances such as as health and liability insurance.
- Booking of flights.
- Electronic exchange of documents wherever possible.
- Check Inbound status.
- Check flight status both before departure and during flight.
- Confirmation of agreed accommodation
- Arrival procedures such as pickup from the airport.
- Preparation of practical informations fr particopants.
- Introduction of a local confidant person for the participant.
- Introduction to agreed locations, activities and contacts.
6. Inbound
Welcoming the participant(s) and providing all practical information for their stay.
7. Reporting
Reporting on how the exchange is going and of happenings or items that need attention.
- Regular reporting by participant, employer, hosting family and confidant.
- Visit(s) by confidant to ensure accommodation and progress.
- Evaluation by participant, employer, hosting family, and confidant.
- Confirmation of the end of the exchange and discharge of the organisations
8. Evaluation
Confirmation of all involved parties of how they experienced the exchange and discharge of the organisation.
Do you want to manage your International Exchanges more efficiently?
Contact Paul or Al @flexchange.world if you want to discuss how FLEXchange can help your organisation by streamlining international exchanges.
We look forward to discussing your requirements and ensuring that you can manage your exchanges with a HUB and a PORTAL that meets the requirements of your organisation.