16th YALS Inhouse seminar: Management Approach to Relationships in Educational Institutions

— Reported by Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović

On 17 March 2018, YALS school representatives had pleasure to attend the 16th YALS Inhouse Seminar, organised by Big Bird School from Belgrade, and titled Management Approach to Relationships in Educational Institutions, at Karađorđe Elementary School in Belgrade. The lecturers were Professor Šefika Alibabić, PhD, and  Professor Jovan Miljković, PhD, from the Andragogy Study Group, the Faculty of Philosophy of Belgrade University. The seminar centred on the three main topics:

– Organisational Culture as a Context of Creating Relationships
– Marketing Mix as a Function of Creating Relationships in an Organisation
– Managerial Skills as a Function of Managing Relationships in an Organisation

The lecturers provided a very useful input about the the different types of organisational cultures and their impact on educational organisations. The participants were given specific tasks to analyse the current position of their association, and its member schools, in the language teaching and learning market, and to agree on the most important strategies and measures to take in order to improve its image and competitiveness. The seminar activities also included discussing the importance of creating suitable work environment and dress codes, developing specific rituals and models of interaction between teachers and students/clients. Detailed SWOT and Differentiation analyses were done in order to find out unique selling points of YALS.

The seminar was conducted highly professionally, and it was especially interesting for the participants to look at their association from a different perspective, as well as to be given instruments to assess it more objectively.

The host of the 16th YALS inhouse seminar was Dijana Kisić, Director of Big Bird School in Belgrade, who once again did her best to immaculately organise this gathering and make it a memorable event for both the lecturers and the participants.