3 new initiatives for the SEV-Alba co-operation

During SEV’s Annual General Assembly, on May 29, 2018, at the Athens Concert Hall , Alba and SEV- Hellenic Federation of Enterprises announced new initiatives, in the framework of their long-term collaboration. 

More specifically, three new actions funded by SEV, were presented, as part of a joint three-year educational initiative aiming at upskilling and reskilling executives across all levels and functions. Actions in more detail include: 

• Specialized workshops, for senior executives, hosting speakers who will present new trends and developments on cutting-edge issues. 
• Executive development programs (maximum of 40 hours each), for middle managers, focusing on topics such as strategic management, performance management, leadership management, change management, women's leadership. 

• A special Financing Program (Scholarship scheme), for the enrollment of junior executives in Masters and MBA programs offered by Alba. This action was inaugurated in the academic year 2017-2018, where 4 scholarships for postgraduate studies were given to executives working in Small and Medium Enterprises, members of SEV. During the General Assembly, a short video of the scholars’ stories was also presented. This initiative will continue for the upcoming academic year 2018 - 2019, with the offer of ten (10) scholarships of 50%

In all three aforementioned initiatives, SEV undertakes to finance its member companies at least 50% of their participation costs and aspires to support at least 500 business executives. 

Mr. Bitsios, Executive Vice-Chairman of SEV, stated: " SEV wants to be an active part of the enhancement of  knowledge and skills needed by Greek business executives in today's internationalized economy. With the rapid change in technology, businesses today have a difficulty in finding executives with specialized skills, problem-solving approach and deduction reasoning ability. For this reason, we have decided to revisit our collaboration with Alba, whose SEV is a founding member, and set up, in cooperation with its management, a training initiative with targeted educational programs that will add value to SEV members and their executives. " 

 During the General Assembly, the Dean of Alba, Dr. Kostas Axarloglou mentioned: "In the new digital era, the revolutionary developments in technology lead to equally revolutionary developments in the business skills, resulting to a misalignment between the skills the employees currently have and the skills companies actually need (talent gap). Alba's collaboration with SEV aims to alleviate the talent gap among SEV company- members and includes a targeted set of dynamically evolving educational actions designed to help executives develop the skills necessary for the digital era and the global economy. These competences will support the personal and professional development of the executives and at the same time support the development of their companies’ efforts towards internationalization.” 

In his closing remarks Dr. Axarloglou praised SEV "for this collaboration, demonstrating SEV’s vision for the continuous support of businesses, based on the development of the business executives as an axis of strengthening both the  evolution of the business community and the progress of our country within the framework of the globalized economy”

The topics/themes of the training programs will be co-designed by the two organizations in order to be compatible with the development priorities of SEV’s members  and SEV itself. In this way, the programs will combine the academic excellence of Alba with the business relevance of SEV.