Olympiads help identify and provide jobs to the best students
What is important for modern young people? How should they be trained in order to become motivated specialists and commendable citizens of the country? These are just a few examples of questions faced by educational institutions, including higher educational establishments. One of the ways to address this issue is to hold Olympiads that are useful for assessing the level of teaching of this or that subject in various universities, find talented young people and select the best candidates for jobs advertised by enterprises.
A subdivision of one of the leading higher educational institutions of Belarus, the State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University (SIMST BSU) is taking great efforts to provide conditions for the creative development of students, forming of intellectual capital starting from the earliest stages of future professionals maturing. Training students in the area of management and economics, the Institute departments always pay attention to the quality of teaching and working with students outside the classroom.
In 2010, teachers of the real estate management department initiated a Management and Economics Olympiad ‘Business Project’. This title was chosen because, developing their own business plans and performing interesting tasks, students can make up their minds on what to do in life, are be able to assess their capabilities and career prospects, work hard to establish themselves as future professionals, become familiar with ‘competitors’ and develop themselves in an effort to surpass them.
The ‘Business Project’ Management and Economics Olympiad is an educational project that encompasses interests of young people, teachers, higher education institutions and employers. Participants – student and post-graduate student teams – create, elaborate and defend economic projects under the guidance of their teachers. The objective of the Olympiad is to identify winners and teach them the art of creation, and, possibly, implementation of business projects, each of which can be socially important for a city or a region as well as for each participant’s personal success and achievements.
Running any business is associated with efforts and hard work. The country needs young people who will be able to launch a business in any field of activity: in production, science, culture, sport – no matter where. What matters is that they are able to generate an idea, start and promote a project. In general, the ‘Business Project’ Olympiad is search and training of creatively thinking people.
Projects conceived by students participating in such a large-scale event can become a non-standard solution of social, youth, economic problems faced by companies and government agencies in a particular region. The spirit of unity, creativity, and a common business that captures all the participants of the Olympiad, may become a good basis for further achievements and careers.
In winter 2010 the real estate management department under the aegis of SIMST BSU organized the first ‘Business Project’ National Olympiad. Three rounds, two extramural and one intramural, were announced, 28 participants applied from various universities of Belarus and the South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk (Russia). Two years later, in the spring of 2012, it was decided to hold the second Olympiad that acquired an international status by that time. Along with local universities, foreign higher educational establishments also showed interest to the event that brought together 17 teams who competed for the winner title.
Each student has a spark of talent, creativity and desire to learn. The objective of the Olympiad is to find this spark.
By Tatiana BORZDOVA, Doctor of Science, associate professor, head of the real estate management department of SIMST BSU
