On Friday 30th September 2022 at Europe House in Valletta, Advenio eAcademy in collaboration with Solidarity Overseas Services Malta held an Award Presentation event to recognise the accomplishments of a number of local NGOs and NGO personnel that completed training programmes in the management of NGOs.
The awards presented to the NGOs were in relation to the online self learning capacity building course developed by Advenio eAcademy in collaboration with Solidarity Overseas Services Malta and run between 2020 and 2021 funded through the Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway Active Citizenship Funds. The Effective Management of an NGO was designed to assist voluntary organisation executives and staff in meeting the challenges of managing an non-governmental organisation. It sought to assist them in improving their capacity to increase their social impact, achieve their goals, and be sustainable over time. The course was provided free of charge and was designed as a self-learn programme, where participants could log in and follow the course at their own pace throughout the whole ACF Malta programming period. There were eleven NGOs that successfully completed the programme making them eligible for ACF grants to support their activities.
A second set of awards were presented individually to members of staff of local NGOs that participated in the two intakes held in 2022. This programme was part of an Erasmus+ funded project which sought to add further detail to the successful programme originally developed for the ACF programme. The new programme was MQF/EQF accredited by the Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) as a 10 ECTS Level 5 Award in NGO Management. Each of the two intakes was delivered over a twelve-week period and involved both self-learning and collaborative learning activities as part of the programme.
In her introduction to the event, Ms. Claudia Taylor East highlighted the positive approach of the voluntary sector which has had to deal with so many challenges in recent years. She spoke about the commitment of SoS to assist socially disadvantaged groups in improving quality of life, providing support services and opportunities to implement development and change. To achieve these objectives she confirmed that SOS Malta would continue to work on 4 pillars: social solidarity; volunteering; overseas development; research and training. SoS Malta was the only local Fund operator in the sector and would continue to work for capacity building in the sector.
Specials guests for the event were the Hon. Julia Farrugia Portelli, Minister for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights (MIVC) and Mr. Jesmond Saliba, Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations. In her address, the Hon. Minister stressed upon the importance of the Voluntary sector in Malta and paid tribute to all the dedication and commitment put in by volunteers to make their NGOs a success. She spoke about the professionalism that was required by staff and volunteers as standards of service continue to be improved and praised the efforts of SoS Malta as a leader in the sector and Advenio eAcademy in the development of such programmes which helped to support NGOs. She spoke about upcoming initiatives by Government to continue to support the sector.
Mr. Jesmond Saliba spoke about the extensive efforts by his Office over the past years to reach out to NGOs to understand better their individual challenges. He spoke about the manner in which his many years of involvement in NGOs prior to his assuming the role of Commissioner made him very well aware of the realities within which so many NGOs in Malta operate. He confirmed that his Office was actively engaged in understanding better the different challenges faced by the different types of voluntary organisations which currently were voluntary organisations without any distinction. The new initiatives mentioned by the Hon Minister would in fact be based on addressing such diverse needs to have more streamlined processes for their support.
Mr D’Alessandro as Executive Director of Advenio eAcademy spoke briefly on the need for continued learning in any professional field. He thanked funding organisations such as the ACF and Erasmus+, which allowed for the design, development and implementation of such specialised programmes and the granting of scholarships to participants. He spoke about the positive feedback received from participating NGOs on the Effective Management of an NGO programme which allowed different members of an NGO admin to follow at their own convenience the particular module or modules that were particularly relevant to their role. He spoke about the collaboration with CARDET in Cyprus and a number of local NGOs which served as the core case studies used throughout the programme. He commented on the active discussion and debate in the tutorial sessions on the Award programme and how the commitment, dedication and professionalism of staff was so evident.
Awards were presented to the NGOs that completed the ACF programme, Effective Management of an NGO and the Erasmus+ programme, Award in NGO Management.
In wrapping up the event, Mr. D’Alessandro announced that a new programme (to be accredited at EQF/MQF 90 ECTS – currently pending accreditation by the MFHEA), Undergraduate Higher Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship. Students having completed the accredited Award programme would be given certain exemptions on this Erasmus+ programme being run in Malta, Greece, Italy and Turkey for which a limited number of scholarships would also be available.
Photo caption: Ms. Claudia Taylor East, CEO of SoS Malta addressing participants at the Award Presentation event along with special guests, the Hon. Julia Farrugia Portelli, Minister for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights (MIVC) and Mr. Jesmond Saliba, Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations, along with Mr. Stephen D’Alessandro, Executive Director of Advenio eAcademy, responsible for development and implementation of the programmes.