The OPEN project held its 1st training of trainers module which due to the COVID-19 emergency was organised on-line from November 9th to 12th, 2020 for the staff from 5 Universities International Relations Offices and Ministry of Education and Sports in Lao PDR. The training was jointly delivered by the University of Alicante and the University of Bologna.

This workshop was centered on the following topics:

• Globalisation vs. Internationalisation
• Introduction to Fundraising and Project Management
• Information and communications technologies for IROs.

During the first day of training, staff from the International Relationships Office of the Laotian partners were educated on information and communications technologies, such as virtual platforms and social media networks, trying to apply these tools into their day-to-day activities. Lessons learned here are crucial now when working online is an obligation for many higher education actors and mobility and travel restrictions are enforced worldwide.

Later, trainees were introduced into new practices for Fundraising Opportunities for international cooperation & research activities: looking into the wide array of funding programs for research, teaching, and practice exchanges available within the European Union and other international donors.

In the remaining days, OPEN colleagues moved into more reflective sessions guided by the University of Bologna and organized in group works for discussion. Laotian universities shared their own practices and analysed them through the lens of new concepts such as globalisation and internationalization, trying to become more aware of the risks and barriers for internationalisation and understanding the need for Action planning in this field.

Following the training, partners participated in a full-day coordination meeting to discuss the project’s status and plan for the next steps. In particular, to overview the progress of the Needs Analysis implementation, provide an index of the IROs Management Guidelines, developed by the MoES with the support from UA, and present an Interactive Quality Assurance plan. OPEN consortium is confident this meeting left them prepared to move forward with project actions during the next months.

https://youtu.be/gFjK_8ZTkAE