National Multiplication Trainings amid COVID-19

The workshops planned between the middle of March and June of 2020 had to be suspended. More than 20 workshops in the target regions had been rescheduled and/or reconceptualised. Due to the various lockdown measures, some of the alumni teams had to change the traditional face-to-face workshops to online implementation, which are especially challenging in some countries due to the lack of supportive infrastructure.

However, the alumni trainer teams, as well as the experts, have been very flexible and timely to adapt to these new circumstances. In countries where it is impossible to have face-to-face events, NMT online workshops will be carried out. In countries where participants can meet physically but the international experts cannot fly in due to travel restrictions, NMT workshops will be implemented in a blended learning approach.

As a result of the joint effort of the alumni trainer teams, the experts and the participants, NMT workshops resumed in the middle of July, when trainers in Iran started their workshop on Sustainable Development with a blended-learning approach. The online workshop in Namibia on Proposal Writing was successfully completed at the end of July.

Following these moves, more multiplication training courses will be implemented amid COVID-19. Hence, NMT is continuing to support the training on higher education management in the target regions.

by Xia Qin