Dubrovnik Summer Academy: boosting personal and business growth

The third Summer Business Academy 2024 was held in Dubrovnik from 30 June to 6 July 2024 (Summer Business Academy 2024). The Academy was organized by the Department of Economics and Business of the University of Dubrovnik and the Faculty of Economics and Business of University of Zagreb. It was a great week of learning, interacting, broadening horizons, and making friends with participants from many countries. The programme of the Academy included three parallel modules: Data Analytics, Emerging innovations, and Sustainability challenges. Each module was comprised of thematic 10-hour workshops, pre-reading materials and exam.

One of the workshops included in the programme was “Sustainable personal growth” taught by RDI Specialist Olga Bogdanova from LAB University of Applied Sciences. During daily interactive sessions, students dived into self-exploration, goals setting, building healthy habits, improving productivity, growing confidence, leading thoughts, building concentration and attention, emotional regulation, empathy, gratitude and connection.

[Alt text: a very big and old-looking building, in front of it a terrace with many people waving hands.] — Image 1. Kick-off of Summer Business Academy in Dubrovnik. (Image: University of Dubrovnik)

This workshop was developed based on the materials created in the Erasmus+ funded project SLEM – Entrepreneurial Self-Leadership Education through Virtual Training (LAB 2024). The self-study manual comprising over eighty exercises is freely available for everyone interested on the project website (SLEM 2024). LAB University of Applied Sciences and University of Dubrovnik were the partners in the project. The workshop “Sustainable personal growth” was also taught during the second Summer Business Academy in July 2023. The continuation of the SLEM project activities after the project ended is a great example of the long-term impact, durability and sustainability of results and strong collaboration between the partners.

[Alt text: a classroom with participants.] — Image 2. Workshop of Summer Business Academy in Dubrovnik. (Image: University of Dubrovnik)

In addition to the Summer Business Academy, the SLEM materials are also utilized at LAB. Olga Bogdanova and Kaisa Liukko continue teaching two online courses, “The art of Being Present”, and “The Art of Leading Yourself”, offered for the LAB students, campus online and open university. The courses embrace the topics of mindfulness and self-leadership, and support the goal orientation, stress management, and overall life satisfaction of the students.

The courses are very popular among students ‒ in spring 2024, over 80 students enrolled to each course, and the courses usually receive a very high ranking and positive feedback. The suggestions for improvements were also collected, and it was found that many students wanted to participate in these courses face-to-face.

Based on this feedback, the changes to the course will be done during spring 2025. The courses will be combined into one course “The Art of Leading Yourself” and will be taught face-to-face on both campuses in Lahti and Lappeenranta. The enrollment will be open in autumn 2024.

Author

Olga Bogdanova works as an RDI Specialist at LAB University of Applied Sciences and acts as a project manager at the Pathfinder project which supports the AI skills for teaching and learning.