Advocacy training workshop held in Serbia

On 30 and 31 May 2017, advocacy training workshop was held in Kraljevo, Serbia. Workshop participants were EP4A project team members from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS)- Regional Chamber of Commerce Moravice and Raška Administrative Districts, representatives of the Regional Chamber of Commerce Zlatibor Administrative District, as well as representatives of vocational education and training (VET) schools: Agricultural-Chemistry School from Kraljevo, Forestry School from Kraljevo, School of Economy from Čačak and Mechanical-Traffic School from Čačak.

Workshop participants had the chance to learn lobbying and advocacy techniques, as well as negotiation tactics. Through interactive workshops, participants gained knowledge and skills on how to effectively communicate with future entrepreneurs, students and their parents and how to cooperate with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Participants also had the opportunity to learn more about psychological and sociological process in negotiating (perception, cognition, emotions, verbal and nonverbal communication, power, influence, ethics).

Additionally, participants were introduced to following subjects:

• how to connect and cooperate with domestic and foreign partners on projects of joint interest
• how to use negotiation and international cooperation in order to achieve goals related to vocational education and training (VET)
• how to create and maintain a stabile network of reliable and active partners from successful realisation of vocational education and training (VET) curricula and other projects important to the chamber system
• how to choose an optimal way of connecting and representing aims and interests of the chamber and its members

Workshop participants will use acquired knowledge and skills for work on future project activities as well as their everyday work.