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“My need from GV studies was to equip myself with sufficient knowledge and hands-on experience in initiating civic engagements and projects in the civil society in my home country, bringing back the best practices available in the advanced world,” said Pakistani Arif Khalil in a recent survey, who graduated Globalverkstan last year. “This is what I could achieve, but more than that, I could bring with me cool memories and heaps of love. Not only that, I got a strong belief in human equality, co-existence and sharing. Most of all, I have access to a full-fledge pool of talent in the form of a family for use in my career goals.”
The education itself is learner-based, practical, and hands-on in theory. Students bring their own experiences to the class to complement the required reading and lectures for each segment of the course. During the first term, projects for the second Learning at Work (LAW), or internship, term are drafted, analyzed and critiqued by classmates. Students are encouraged to read extra-curricular literature. Ideally, students also use class time to share experiences, build ideas, and fulfill course requirements. Such requirements involve attendance, participation, individual and group presentations, group work and project work, written responses to the literature and seminars about each course unit.
Students encounter events here in Sweden that bring activism to the classroom during their course of study. For example, one class organized an online petition and city protest against the results of the national Belorussian elections in January 2006. More recently, current students have worked with Studenter Mot Krig Göteborg (the Students Against War group in Gothenburg) to organize protests, a seminar, an online petition, and other public awareness activities to bring attention to and protest against the Swedish National Security Service (Säpo)’s judgment in accusing Palestinian classmate, Hassan Asad, of terrorist involvement. These are just two examples of hands-on and spontaneous activism; the students’ influence and ideas reach far and wide across the globe.
“Looking at Globalverkstan as a complement to my previous university studies and work experience, I find myself prepared to develop and carry out projects in relation to development issues. I plan to use my skills both on a local as well as a global level,” said Malin Omland, a Swede who spent her internship in Nicaragua.
How does it feel to be part of a program that influences what is known as civil society? “Most important, up to date, it’s necessary looking at society at large and also taking into consideration the global context we are a part of,” said Omland. “It feels good, I mean, I think we all do, being part of this program. Civil society is an essential actor in society with a lot of potential to influence and push for changes!”
“What I like best about the program is the necessity to form your own independent learning style with own objectives and indicators,” said Bulgarian student Velichka Dimitrova. “Only as an independent individual is one able to become a good and successful manager. If one always compares oneself to others and expects the tasks and the initiative to originate from the management body, then one is not really using the intellect, creativity and originality, which are essential qualities to the leadership personality. In my opinion, the idea of the education is quite revolutionary, and not everybody is able to make full use of it. To be able to experience and understand Globalverkstan, one has to experience an internal and social transformation.”
For more information, read about Globalverkstan at http://www.Globalverkstan.net . Globalverkstan’s sister project, Kulturverkstan, will be covered in a future article.
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