It is our pleasure to announce the start of a new academic year in the Democracy Study Centre (DSC). 30 scholars from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine were recruited for the third academic year (2019-2020). Throughout the year, they will attend nine DSC working sessions devoted to two identified subject areas: 1) Strengthening the Mittelstand and social entrepreneurship, 2) Women in focus. The scholars are expected to develop and implement their own group projects in these key areas.
The first working session was held on October 26-27. Dr. Iryna Chernysh, the DSC Project Manager, welcomed the selected scholars and made a presentation on the DSC project, covering its concept, achievements and programme for 2019-2020.
Stanislav Brus, an alumnus of 2018-2019, shared his own experience in the DSC participation and presented the group project – economic game for teenagers – designed and developed by him and his colleagues.
Nataliia Maloholovko, a business trainer from the Kyiv Educational Hub, held a training “Building an Effective Team” for the participants helping them to get to know each other.
In the afternoon Dr. Niclas Rüffer, a Research Fellow at Mannheim University and the Technical Advisor of Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit in the Cluster of Sustainable Economic Development in Ukraine delivered a lecture “Introduction into the importance of Mittelstand firms (SMEs) and Entrepreneurship for a prosperous economy and democratic society – an interactive venture on the example of Germany and the Eastern Partnership Countries”.
This lecture opened a core business course that will be held by Dr. Niclas Rüffer during the DSC 2019-2020 academic year.
The second day was entirely dedicated to an intensive peace mediation training by an accomplished mediation trainer from the Ukrainian Mediation Center, Anna Gorina. The scholars gained in-depth knowledge and received practical on mediation of various conflicts, types and stages of mediation processes.
The training was highly appreciated by the scholars as it provided them with useful and practical methodologies that could be applied to clear up misunderstandings and improve their own communication skills used in business life.
We will keep you updated!