International Academy for Leadership

The International Academy for Leadership (IAF) is responsible for an important part of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s global dialogue programme:
a) for the international seminars for leaders and young leaders of liberal persuasion, held in Gummersbach, near Cologne, and
b) for customised information programmes in Germany and the European Union for senior members of counterpart organisations.

Some international seminars include online components organised by the International e-Academy – which is part of the IAF. In these cases an invitation to participate in the seminar itself depends on the quality of performance in an online preparatory event. Our aim is to use modern technology and methodology to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of our work throughout the world.

The online seminars allow participants to:
a) enhance their knowledge of the subject matter at hand and thereby to prepare themselves for the IAF seminar in Germany,
b) complete certain set tasks related to what they have learned,
c) access and download essential reference material and
d) contact other participants and to exchange opinions through a forum set up for this specific purpose.

Screen shot of an International
e-Academy seminar All participants are required to supply a profile of themselves including contact details and, more importantly, thoughts on the topic of the seminar.
The overall aims of these online events are thus to allow participants to prepare, to ensure that there are no insurmountable differences in the level of knowledge each of them have and to give them an opportunity to familiarise themselves with their colleagues.

Furthermore, follow up online events are available to participants of these particular seminars. One of the functions of such follow-ups, apart from supplying supplementary knowledge and information, is to facilitate networking among former participants in the Liberal World Club.

The working languages for the online events of the International e-Academy are English and Spanish. In order to understand the texts and to express their thoughts in the forum it is essential that participants have a good command in one of these languages.
Despite the different languages, the tasks and materials are the same in both. The aim is to prevent language from being a barrier to acquiring knowledge, to communication and to the sharing of views and ideas.

The e-Academy is designed to be a platform that is easily accessible throughout the world. Differences in the quality of internet services were taken into consideration when designing it. Hence, media and applications requiring high-speed links are not used.

Feedback by participants indicated that the quality of the entire seminar, including the online component, are higher than usual and that the e-Academy was user friendly to a high degree.
During the course of 2008 the IAF’s International e-Academy plans to hold three further online preparatory events on the following topics:
a) Chances and Challenges of Liberalism
b) Strategic Planning and
c) Local Government and Civil Society .

The International e-Academy is modelled on the highly successful 'Virtuelle Akademie', an online platform for political education in Germany also established by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

For further information concerning the International e-Academy, please contact:

Joachim Schulte
Programme expert, e-Academy

Phone: +49/(0)331 - 7019 - 262
E-Mail: joachim.schulte@freiheit.org
URL: http://e-academy.fnst.org