The ANAU hosted the final meeting of the project “Strengthening Soft Skills as Employment Key Tool: Transferring V4 Experience” on May 16-17, 2023, with the opening of a “Soft Skills Development Center” as the most important outcome of the projet.
March 16, 2023
The project coordinator, the head of the IRD G. Hambardzumyan began the meeting by presenting the main goal and expected results of the project, as well as the work done.
Partner institutions provided online training in five soft skills modules to 5 ANAU main and 3 assistant specialists within the framework of the project. Following that, qualified specialists created these modules for teaching at the newly opened center. The meeting was attended by RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Artur Martirosyan, ANAU Rector Vardan Urutyan, representatives of the Erasmus+ National Office, ANAU students, academic and administrative staff.
The meeting was also attended by professors from the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, who visited the ANAU in the framework of Erasmus+ KA1 program.
Moreover, the following representatives from the project’s European partner universities attended the meeting: Ildiko Rudnak, the project leader from the Department of Agricultural Management and Leadership Science of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Alena Charvashova- the project expert from the University of South Bohemia as well as Norbert Floris – the head of the Center for International Programs of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and local project coordinator. They participated in the first meeting of the project as well.
The European partner universities of the project presented the scientific and educational areas and international programs of their universities, the purpose of which was to increase their recognition in Armenia and beyond. As a result, the participants of the meeting got acquainted with the research areas and international programs implemented in the above-mentioned universities, and if they share common interests, they can collaborate on joint projects.
Then, as a result of the project, the Soft Skills Development Center was officially opened.
In the second part of the meeting, the trained experts presented the modules they developed, their number of hours and credits, and topics. In order to make the meeting more interesting and make the developed modules more accessible to the participants, the experts conducted interesting question games with those present.
The following modules were presented:
- Arusyak Gharibyan, Associate Professor of the Chair of Social Sciences presented the module “Communication Skills”, after which she conducted a survey of participants about human emotions and behavior.
- Arman Harutyunyan, Associate Professor of the Chair of Agribusiness Management and Policy, presented the module “Conflicts and Time Management,” following which he discussed with the participants the subject of clarifying the degree of conflict.
- Alla Aleksanyan, the grant program coordinator of the International Relations Department, presented the “Teamwork” module, and Ildiko Rudnak, the consultant and expert of this module, played a game related to the organization of teamwork with the participants.
- Liana Vardanyan, Head of the Career Development and Lifelong Learning Division presented the “Critical Thinking and Problem Solving” module, after which she tested the participants within this module.
March 17, 2023
The second day of the meeting was devoted to the discussion of the following issues of the project
- Project implementation and final results
- Information dissemination by partner universities
- Financial aspects of project implementation
- Possibilities and directions of other joint project development by the participating universities.
Issues related to summing up the results of the project and presentation of the report were also discussed.
The Hungarian, Czech, and Slovak guests also visited the Geghard monastery complex and the pagan temple of Garni on that day to learn about Armenian history and culture.