U®AIDE
  • Over URAIDE
  • U®Blog

U®BLOG

E-mail
about

Conducting Practice Based Learning for Development

21/6/2014

 
FotoReal-Time stakeholder consultation at VHL
Recently a colleague at VHL reminded me that there is more to education than getting the competencies to students. As he knew I was teaching Bachelor students Disaster Recovery Management (DRM) he shared the situation of a partner university in the Balkan where education came to a stand-still. The floods of a month ago ruined the campus of the partner univeristy. At the time DRM students were spending time in rural Hungary for field work. We should have shifted the location a few miles.

This situation illustrates that teaching Disaster Recovery Management in the Netherlands in one sense is a luxury position having all the educational support at hand and in another sense it is often 'swimming-on-the-shore'. As a lecturer I just have to live with the fact that I do not have recovery situations at hand to connect learning and practice. In their second year these students will be allowed to spend two months with an organisation engaged in disaster recovery. And a longer placement period in the third year hopefully offers them some practical experience.

Battle of Ideas
Unlike the Bachelors education the Professional masters education we are providing for practitioners offers ample opportunity to engage. This week I enjoyed doing the facilitation of a module on Project Cycle Management where we did a Real-Time project identification with a group of stakeholders linked to a Centre of Excellence in Farmer Field Schools in Egypt in the context of a Nuffic project. The Egyptians had the benefit of picking the brains of our bright international students for bringing innovative ideas to the Centre. Both a Dean from Agricultural Faculty of Fayoum University and the Undersecretary of Fayoum Agricultural Department were present in the classroom. They were consulted by a group of agricultural experts from Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia (students from the Management of Development who signed up for the capita selecta PCM). Both groups loved the interaction. A great way to combine theory and practice at VHL University. Students may consider to submit one of these proposals to the Battle of Ideas of NWO-WOTRO next week. The Egyptians could try the Facility for Sustainable Entrepreneurship of which the second round was launched this week. We only need to resource a food or seed company to partner with us. 

"I believe that in the short run, within 2014, the floods will have a downward impact on growth (...) Overall we can have very cautious optimism and if reforms are pursued and with recovery from the floods, I think we can expect to see a positive growth trajectory and job creation coming forward."

Ellen Goldstein, World Bank's country director for southeast Europe. Reuters, May 26 2014

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    About me

    My name is Reinier van Hoffen.
    I write this blog on space for civil society in my own capacity as public and social intrapreneur, having contributed over 20 years to the strengthening of civil society in various capacities working for various organizations.

    Disclaimer: The content of this blog does not reflect in any way the position or opinion of my current employer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

    Picture

    U®Reading

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Foto
    Foto
    Foto
    Foto
    Picture
    Foto
    Click here for a summary.
    Also find the text of a lecture Dr. Achterhuis held at the 2012 Bilderberg conference.

    Archives

    August 2022
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    May 2020
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

Contact


Address

Nachtegaallaan 26
​Ede, the Netherlands

Telephone

+31 (0)6 1429 1569

Email

info@uraide.nl
Photo used under Creative Commons from The Garden Smallholder
  • Over URAIDE
  • U®Blog