Training Courses

Similarly addressed to local councillors, this course is aimed at teaching them how to communicate effectively in order to better fulfill their roles and pursue their aims. The topics we will be addressing include: What is communication? Why do we need to have good communication skills? The structure of communication processes. The skills required to effectively communicate with different stakeholders (e.g: active listening, summarizing, active observation, effective questioning, effective verbal and non-verbal communication, building confidence). How to avoid mistakes and wrong habits in communication? How to find out what the best tools are for your own communication efforts, fitting your own personality? What are possible barriers in communication and how to overcome them?

Local officials also need to be able to design project proposals and budget plans, especially after the recent decentralisation reforms. This is not always an easy task, and therefore, in the course, we will be dealing with topics such as: What is proposal writing? What are the main steps of successful proposal writing? How to come up with project ideas by undertaking, for instance, a problem tree analysis? How to select your goals, objectives, outputs, indicators and desired impact in real project practice? How to design a logical framework for projects in general, using a simple format? How to prepare of budget plan? How to evaluate your own project proposal according to a checklist? The training uses a variety of practical exercises emphasising the steps of proposal and budget development. Participants will be requested to actually write short proposals, and will also receive feedback and advice from the trainers, regarding the proposals they have been writing.