From October 2 to 5, 2020, a training session on Project Management was held for the Steering Committee of the EU Project “Intensification of Influence of Teachers of Luhansk Region on the Processes of Reconciliation and Peace-Building.”
The session was held on the basis of the hotel complex “MIR” (Severodonetsk city).
The purpose of the training was to form the project participants’ competencies necessary for writing projects aimed at improving the infrastructure of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University and the Luhansk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education (LRIPPE), as well as the introduction of the latest technologies in educational work with all target groups of the project – school teachers, university teachers, pupils, students, population – to influence the processes of reconciliation and peace-building in the Luhansk region.
The trainer was Mykola Zhurba, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of LRIPPE, Guest Professor of the Jagiellonian University (Poland, Krakow).
The training was attended by representatives of the Steering Committee of the EU Project “Intensification of Influence of Teachers of Luhansk Region on the Processes of Reconciliation and Peace-Building”: Vitalii Kurylo (project manager), Serhii Savchenko (Rector of the University), Iryna Tsymbal (Rector of LRIPPE), Dmytro Uzhchenko, Olena Karaman, Iryna Myhovych, Volodymyr Moroz.
The topics of the first day of the training session were “Project Activities and a New Educational Paradigm” and “European Experience and Ukrainian Specificity of Educational Fundraising”. The program provided for the consideration of both theoretical and practical issues: the quintessence of modern reforms and their fronesis, competence-based approach in project activities, democratic governance and tolerance, theoretical and methodological foundations of project activities in educational institutions; basic methods of fundraising, fundraising algorithm, work with international organizations and donors, organization of fundraising and project activities at Warsaw and Jagiellonian Universities.
The second day of the session was devoted to the consideration of the topics “Mini-MBA in Project Management” and “Teamwork: Non-Standard Solutions to Standard Problems”. The material on the bifurcation model of administration and critical thinking, communication in projects and work with stakeholders, time and financial resource management, project management tools was extremely interesting for the participants; emotional intelligence (EQ) and the development of Softskills, Fronesis and the peculiarities of the development of creative thinking, Life Long Learning as the basis of leadership, motivation and the trajectory of personal development (coaching technology).
In accordance with the theme of the third day of the session – “Project Management: From an Action Plan to a Project” – the design algorithm was considered, consisting of a number of sequential stages: Pre-project stage – Planning stage and a holistic vision of the project – Implementation and monitoring stage – Project closure and reporting.
And the fourth day of the training ended with the development of the personal educational project, during which the issues of hidden possibilities of project activities and a new vector of development of educational institutions were discussed.
The culmination of the training session was the presentation of the developed educational projects by the training participants and their discussion.
Summing up and checking the acquired knowledge and skills took place by testing using the online Kahoot program. Feedback was provided using Google Forms.
The project participants assessed the training session as meaningful, interesting and very useful, because, thanks to active participation, it provided an opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and design skills through various events and exercises: multimedia presentations, training videos, handouts, effective exercises, teamwork, online survey using smartphones (Kahoot, Mentimeter). But the main result of the training was the development and presentation of our own product – a project in the field of education.
All training participants thanked the trainer and each other for effective teamwork and outlined plans for further activities within the project.
In a solemn atmosphere, the project manager Vitalii Kurylo and the trainer Mykola Zhurba presented certificates to the participants.
A video clip based on the materials of the training session was posted on the university’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmpQ9tcW6tM
This document has been prepared with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of this document is solely the responsibility of the SI “Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University”, and in no case can be considered as the position of the European Union.
According to the Project Team