Willemstad, 'Practical, intensive training', 'learned a lot'. These are some of the qualifications the participants gave to the Project implementation master class A piece of cake that USONA (Implementing organization Netherlands Antilles Development Foundation) organized in cooperation with the UNA in Curaçao from 23rd to 25th of March.The immediate reason for this master class was the large number of approved projects in 2009 and the desire to supply additional skills and tools in order to further professionalize the implementation of the projects.
In three days the 20 participants, all of them involved in development projects in the Antilles, went through eight modules in which mainly the feedback to their own projects, the daily practice, was emphasized. Because of this, the theory received direct practical implementation. The enthusiasm was such that already during the master class plans were made to keep meeting each other after this master class as well (LinkedIN, SharePoint).
The participants in the master class originate from a variety of sectors such as tourism, education, the prison system, youth welfare, and health care and from governmental departments on Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, Bonaire and Curaçao. The main subjects, eight topics were: Commission and principalship, Targets, Strategy and target tree, Actors and stakeholders, Risk factors, Leadership and Change management, Process management, Planning and Control, and Cashing in. Each module started with a theoretical approach to the topic, followed by the practice. In each case the participants were given the assignment to provide feedback from the topic discussed to their own project(s). Precisely because of the diversity of projects there were lively and useful discussions. The whole master class was supported by a web environment (SharePoint) to which the participants were able to log in already before the start of the master class and could read relevant discussion papers and documents. Within this platform they could also questions, a function that even after completion of the master class will continue to be available, creating a project implementation studygroup, and so increasing the sustainability of this project.
The teachers were experts from the Netherlands who brought along a broad experience, and also program managers of USONA who could perfectly give feed back from the daily practice. The master class was led by Hans van Leeuwen (Certified Project Director) and Frans Versteeg (Advisor USONA).
Upon the retirement of Frans Versteeg as Director of USONA at the end of September 2009 the master class was a gift to him from the Berenschot Group. Versteeg thereupon passed the gift symbolically to the Governors of the island territories. The first master class therefore has been complimentary.
