Thursday, April 17, 2014
The second national course of the Albanian School of Political Studies took place in Gjirokaster from 11-13 April 2014. The course was composed of two sessions, each following a specific aim and methodology. The first module, “Leadership for Leaders”, was conducted by Dr. Frank Prochaska, chair of Management Emeritus, Colorado Technical University, USA, and was designed as a comprehensive leadership exercise with the aim of developing new conceptual foundations on effective democratic leadership and change. Participants were able to work on improving the necessary skills for managing change processes through interactive problem-solving exercises targeting individual and team strengths, leadership profiles, effective team building etc. Upon completion of the training participants received a certificate from Pro System Intl. Colorado.
The second part of the course consisted in presentations and exercises on communication techniques and PR technologies used in political and public engagement campaigns etc. Mr Alban Bala, PR practitioner, Founder of the Albanian Institute of Public of Relations, started with an presentation of tool of communication and used also as a case study the practical public engagement on the dismantle of Syrian chemical arsenal in Albania.
The third module, was conducted as an open discussion about the recent paper of Dr. Blendi Kajsiu, Political Scientist, named “The tension between Europeanization and neoliberalism: State Weakness in the Case of Albania”. Participants discussed also with Mr. Kajsiu about his personal public role in the Alliance Against the Import of Waste, which was able to organise a referendum for the first time in Albania and also on the protests against the Syrian chemical arsenal.
At the same moments, the participants had the opportunity to visit the touristic town of Gjirokastra, part of the UNESCO world heritage list. The local television channel “TVGJ”, part of the National Public Television, reported about the event.
Click here to watch the TV report
