The representatives of the partnering organisations were welcome by Dimitar Trendafilov, deputy rector at NBU responsible for internationalisation and Petya Assenova, head of the Computer Science department. After
that Valentina Ivanova presented the New Bulgarian University and the Erasmus+ programme and its activities in Bulgaria. After the presentations of ESI CEE and DNA, it was time for coffee and a tour around the university to get a better idea of the hosting institution and project coordinator of eLead Speed. In addition to presenting their institution, Algebra introduced their e-Leadership MBA that is a relevant example for the
project. Gruppo Pragma, MUAS and ISTUD also presented their institutions highlighting the expertise relevant for the project.
After lunch Valentina Ivanova started presenting the work plan and methodology of IO1: e-Leadership Observer. Very quickly it became clear that there were some challenges of definitions and in the implementation of the tasks leading to the intellectual output. Given that all other intellectual outputs are starting at a later stage and are dependent on the results of IO1, it was decided to use the time provisioned for their presentations to brainstorm and get a better idea of how to deal with the challenges.
How to define the preliminary list of required skills and competences was identified as a challenge. In this respect Maria Laura Fornaci who was the project manager of the Le@d3.0 Academy, the project eLead Speed complements, presented the taxonomy used to define the strategic e-leadership skills the project focused on. For details see her slides. During the discussion that followed different solutions were identified and the partners agreed on the following.
The eleadership skills and competences to be included in the preliminary list will answer the question: “What skills and knowledge one needs to be able to drive digital transformation in his/her context?”. In order to answer it, an online survey will be put in place by NBU that will be sent by all partners to relevant people, alumni and students, who strive to become e-leaders. The questionnaire will include three blocks of questions. The first block will have questions with open answers in order to assess respondents’ understanding of and awareness about e-leadership. The second block will verify the importance of a set of already identified skills. Finally, the third block will generate input for additional skills relying again on open answer questions.
In order to set the list of skills to be used in the second block different sources will be used.The partners already identified ESCO and EURES as very relevant and useful and additional sources will be also looked for. Based on the survey results a preliminary list of 30 skills and competences will be defined that will be later verified by e-leaders in the form of interviews and focus groups. This verification will result in a final list containing the top 10 skills and competences.
The second day was used to present the project management structure and tools,dissemination and quality assurance mechanisms.