The 10th full-time MBA-Certificate Program Class 2001-2002 has started with the participation of 60 students. For the first time this year, 22% of the student body hold an undergraduate degree from foreign-based universities, 8,33% are international students from Georgia, Turkey, Lebanon and China, and 7% are sponsored by their companies (ALPHA BANK SA, TITAN CEMENT Co. SA, SILVER & BARYTE ORES MINING SA, P. BACACOS SA).
Since organizational work today is mostly based on teams, ALBA places high value on effective teamwork as a key factor for future success. As a cornerstone of the Program, the ''Outdoor Management Program'' Team Building Workshop, introducing Period I of the MBA-Certificate Class, aims at initiating incoming students into the mentality and the challenges of teamwork. Putting students in outdoor situations where they face physical challenges, may bring out skills which cannot be addressed by conventional classroom training. Students are given the chance to get to know each other, work together, live a common experience, handle the dynamics of teamwork, as well as recognize their own skills and the conditions under which their skills can be most effectively deployed in a well-functioning team.
This year's ''Outdoor Management Program'' was held on the weekend of September 1-2, 2001 in Kalavryta, in cooperation with TREKKING Hellas. Robert Marx, Associate Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts and visiting faculty at ALBA since its early years, coordinated the workshop by introducing the concepts of teamwork and constantly linking theory with practice, throughout the experiential leadership and teambuilding activities. ALBA will be using observations from this valuable experience as a tool to form the student teams that will work together all along the academic year.