According to experts in education and business, having additional skills and competencies other than those implied by one’s occupation is becoming all the more essential. The emergence of online courses and educational platforms had a great effect on the modern educational paradigm; since mid-zeros, the concept of 21st Century Skills that can help us attain our important goals, build a career and effectively face new challenges has been actively discussed on different levels. These skills can be divided into several modules that include analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, teamwork, creativity, communication skills, media literacy and other.
Nowadays, learning such skills is important to not just responsible executives, but also students and specialists who aim to build a successful career, believes Anastasia Prichislenko, Director of ITMO’s Personal Development Center. For that reason, specialists of the Center have long begun to develop dedicated educational programs; a whole new module of them will be launched this year.
“We selected courses for the new module with regard to the Center’s area of focus and the 21st Century Skills paradigm that we’ve been working with for a long time already. Today, as the world is rapidly changing, learning certain things has become essential for everyone and not just those with key positions, i.e. senior executives and entrepreneurs,” says Anastasia Prichislenko.
The courses will be held by experts from different fields: professional psychologists, business coaches, HR specialists and marketing experts, as well as successful entrepreneurs who are ready to share their knowledge and experience. The topic and format of each particular lesson will be defined by the expert, yet these won’t be just regular lectures - the students will actively communicate with their tutors and receive both individual and group assignments, as well as practical tasks and even homework.
The first workshops will start in mid-February and run until the end of April. There are also four courses planned for this spring, as well as a tournament in the Stocker business game. The lessons will take place at three of ITMO’s buildings - on 11/2 Chaikovskogo street, 9 Lomonosova street, and 14 Birzhevaya line. Here’s a review of the courses you can already sign up for:
Proper thinking and effective planning
In the course “Managerial reasoning: is it possible to learn to think?”, entrepreneur Evgeniy Leshkov will explain why most people prefer to speak their mind thoughtlessly, and will teach to discern and correct common mistakes in one’s reasoning. The program’s content will feature lots of examples from the expert’s personal experience, which is why these lessons will be most useful to future entrepreneurs and executives. The course will run until April 24; the lessons will take place every even Tuesday from 18:30 till 21:00. You can sign up for it here.
Creativity techniques and teamwork
From March 15 till April 26, the Center will once more hold its Co-creation course which was the most popular course in 2017. Last year, its students worked on relevant business tasks and learned whether it’s possible to streamline creativity. This year, the experts offered to alter the program, yet its key objectives will remain unchanged: the students will learn to search for new opportunities to complete any task, come up with unconventional ideas and enhance team creativity. Register for the course here.
Gamification and edutainment
Gamification, has already gained its popularity with marketing experts, HR specialists and other professionals can be effectively used in education, as well. Learn about the different gamification techniques, creating games for specific purposes and the concept of “edutainment” from the “Gamification in education” course. The course is aimed at education professionals and students who are interested in developing projects that make use of gamification techniques. The lessons will take place from April 4 to 7, every day, from 10 am till 5 pm; you can register for the course here.
Communication and presentation skills
Learn to be persuasive, employ effective negotiation strategies and keep your calm when speaking in public. This spring, the Personal Development Center will offer a range of workshops that will help you train your communication skills and overcome common mistakes.
On March 12, from 18:30 till 21:00, Daria Eremina from the Public Presentations Center will hold the “Speechcraft - how to be persuasive” workshop, and on March 26, at the same time, Dmitry Kotkin, head of the “SHIP” negotiator school will speak about argumentation, psychological abuse and effective negotiation techniques during the “Negotiation sparring” workshop. And on April 16, business coach Sergei Gurnik will expand on the nature of emotion and talk about the ways to induce them as part of his “Emotional presentations” lecture.
Learn by playing
It is possible to learn the basics of business processes, teamwork and decision making in a gaming format. For instance, you can try the popular Startup board game that revolves around launching and developing IT projects; you can register for an open game at the Personal Development Center on April 9 here.
Another game that is great for anyone who’s interested in becoming an entrepreneur is Stocker, which has already become a popular instrument for assessing marketeers’ efficiency and was named among the best educational games for sales executives and HR specialists in 2016 and 2017.
Stocker helps to develop key business skills. For example, when playing Stocker in teams of three or four, not only do the players have to make effective decisions, but also have their team agree with it. ITMO’s Stocker tournament will start in the end of February; the winners will be announced in April. You can join the tournament as part of an already assembled team or individually; in this case, your team will be formed right at the event.
You can read more about the different workshops and get additional information in the Personal Development Center’s community in VK.
