The Academy of Political Studies (APS) is a nongovernmental organisation founded in 2009, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aiming to encourage the emergence of a new generation of young political and civic leaders dedicated to implement best democratic models of governance and development. The APS is the responsible body for the organisation of the Albanian School of Political Studies, thus it is part of a wider CoE network of schools of political studies established since 1992 with the view to train future generations of political, economic, social and
cultural leaders in countries in transition.

The APS activities comprise two main groups: the training and capacity building and contribution in democratic andreform processes in Albania. The training and capacity building contains two main programmes:

 

 

"The Albanian School of Political Studies" is operational since 2007. It addresses young politicians,public administrators and civil society leaders through the exchange of knowledge, training and generation of new ideas in a number of areas such as goodgovernance at the central and local levels, public policy development, political communication, EU policies and law, as well as integration of under represented communities in the political processes.

 

"The Training Programme for Local Administration" offers targeted training to local government officials with the view to build the capacities and exchangeexperience among local government units. Mayors and local public officials have the opportunity to gather beyond political and geographical boundaries, in order to share best practices on solutions to their daily challenges. Through participation in the APS training and capacity building programmes, participants have a unique opportunity to become familiar with topics and issues as well as experiences of highly qualified experts, both national and international. In addition, they establish new relationships with each other that enable them to integrate in to professional networks in their country as well as in the world. APS seeks to achieve gender balance of the participants in its programmes and equal representation of ethnic and religious minorities when they meet the APS requirements.

 

The APS contribution in democratic and reform processes in Albania comprises a number of programmes such as:

 

-"Regional Academy of Democracy"