One of the best part of being in an active and engaging group is that everyone can help each other reach their full potential in order to make the most use of each individual’s assets. This process is also known as Human Resources. After organising Local Training Courses (LTC) and Regional Training Courses (RTC), AEGEE-Chișinău decided to help people become experts in Human Resources at the Human Resources European School (HRES). Ana Gancearuc, former HR responsible for AEGEE-Chișinău and main organiser of HRES, was kind enough to tell us all about this training course with members from all over Europe.
The AEGEEan: What, in a nutshell, is HRES?
Ana: The long explanation is Human Resources European School, a seven-day international training course that aims to empower youth NGO members – who are involved in the field of Human Resources – to develop, implement and manage HR strategies in their organisations.
Why did you decide to host HRES in Moldova ?
Because we are a very hospitable country and we have good and friendly people that can’t wait to meet all our participants. We have a beautiful city and a beautiful country and we’d love more people to find out about Moldovan traditions and culture.
What do you think is the most amazing bit about the HRES?
For me personally, working in the field of HR, is an amazing opportunity to gain knowledge on the challenges and solutions in HR management in youth organisations. Participants will learn what it takes to effectively attract, select, integrate, develop and maintain members. They will gain skills in the field of recruitment, group dynamics, motivation, conflict management, training design and delivery, leadership. Also they will get an insight into the impact and significance of being a student multiplier on a societal and a personal dimension. Trainers will consult and feedback each other on best practices and HR concepts used at home.
Why do you only aim your training course at young NGO members?
As we are members of AEGEE, one of the biggest European organisations, we focus first of all on our members to become more professional and get the knowledge they are seeking for. But we don’t close the door to people that are not necessarily members of NGO’s or members of our organisation. We welcome everybody who has interest in our projects and training courses.
Do you expect any young NGO members, who are not a member of AEGEE, to attend this training course?
The Academy provides some exceptional and professional trainers and I know that many NGO’s are looking forward to participate and be able to get the knowledge for their organisations, such as AISEC, BEST and different Youth Organisations from Moldova. Even my work colleagues form the HR department are very interested to participate.
Why did you decide on only allowing a maximum of 20 participants to attend your training course?
I think a group of 20 people is more easy to manage and everybody has the possibility to interact with each other and know each other during the whole week of training. But most important, as we are a small country, from a logistic point of view the hostels we have here can host maximum 20-25 people. And we would like to keep the whole group together, rather than divide them through the city.
Participants have to pay a fee of €100. What do the people get for this amount of money?
As everybody from AEGEE already knows, especially the ones who organised at least once a Summer University, the expenses are pretty big if you don’t have sponsors who can help you get things for free.
So basically for this €100 fee, participants will have a nice place to sleep, three meals per day, all necessary material for the training course and we reimburse 50% of the travel costs for the trainers.
We don’t have grants or financial help from anybody and we must achieve our goals from what we have. As we all know this is voluntary and nobody has a salary from what they are doing in AEGEE.
One of the requirements for the participants is that they can communicate in English fluently. What will happen if a participant’s proficiency in English actually seems to be too bad during the HRES?
Moldova first of all is not such a close or accessible location for most antennas, and I think the people who are going to apply and who already applied for HRES, are members who really know what they are looking for. And to be in a country, for a full week of training in the Human Resources course you must like it. Probably board members and HR responsible are the most interested in this training course. But, as we are all open to help each other, I don’t think there will be a problem in helping each other so everybody gets the knowledge the trainers will provide us.
Of course before the training itself, we are going to get to know the participants a bit better, find out more about each other, and see if anybody from the applicants needs more help with English.
If this article has sparked your attention, maybe you’ll also enjoy this promotional video of HRES.
Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen