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Overview
The Swedish Institute Management Programme (SIMP) Northern and Eastern Europe brings together business leaders who want to succeed in driving change for economically, environmentally and socially sustainable businesses.
Today’s leaders need a firm understanding of the complexity and unpredictability of current global challenges and opportunities. They are increasingly expected to act responsibly and grow their businesses more sustainably. As a participant of SIMP, you will get access to knowledge and tools that are critical for understanding sustainable and responsible business, and that will help you to become an even better leader for those you work with and for leading change.
SIMP builds on Sweden’s prominent position in innovation and sustainable business and its connection to the global economy. The programme provides methods, concepts and practical applications from leading experts in the key aspects of sustainability. Through this hands-on approach, you will meet several companies from Sweden and the Northern and Eastern Europe region to discuss their sustainability work and explore their challenges. In addition to external experts, SIMP builds on the expertise and extensive experience within the group and creates a strong network between participants, with much time dedicated to peer learning and teambuilding.
Throughout the programme, you will work on a sustainability challenge in your organisation and apply your learnings to continually develop skills for making a positive business impact. You will formulate the challenge based on the needs of your organisation and local circumstances.
The programme requires your active participation. Your own work context will be your arena for learning, reflection and application. You will gain knowledge that develops your leadership, understanding that helps your organisation, methods that you can apply directly, and tasks that you can deliver to increase learning and enable immediate application of new knowledge.
SIMP Northern and Eastern Europe 2021 runs online between May – November 2021. The programme contains coaching, interactive workshops, group tasks and lectures, as well as virtual visits to companies and organisations in Sweden. SIMP is a challenging and interactive programme that demands your active participation and contribution. It is not a series of one-way communicated lectures.
SIMP will give you:
- An exclusive suite of workshops, lectures and visits with highly-acclaimed speakers selected specifically for their competence, clarity, and high level of audience engagement.
- A thorough understanding of the principles of sustainable business with a focus on human rights, climate and the environment, decent working conditions and anti-corruption.
- A strong set of skills to drive change in your own organisation through responsible leadership.
- Knowledge to let you work with Design Thinking as a method to develop creative and sustainable solutions to complex problems.
- A network of leaders who are committed to sustainable business and responsible leadership with whom you will grow and learn from to build lasting business relationships.
- Insights into business cases for sustainability in Sweden, one of the leading countries in sustainable business practice.
- And overall, the opportunity to grow and develop in the programme’s focus areas – it is up to you to make the most of the experience and engage to the extent you can.
- Access to the global Swedish Institute alumni network.
Can I apply?
You are welcome to submit your application if you fulfil the following:
- You aspire to make sustainability an integral part of your business strategy.
- You are in a leading position within trade, industry or the public sector.
- You have a mandate to influence the strategy for your organisation.
- You want to share and build on the competences and knowledge you gain from the programme within your organisation.
- You are willing to support your fellow participants and share your experience and knowledge with them.
- You are between 25 and 45 years old (born 1976–1996).
- You have a good working knowledge of both written and spoken English.
- You have a post secondary education.
- You are a citizen and resident of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden or Ukraine.
- You are keen to take part in a highly interactive online course and look forward to connecting digitally.
Note: Due to the current situation in Belarus, SI took the decision that, as of 1 October 2020, we will not provide financial support to Belarusian state employees.
Programme structure, format and timeline
SIMP Northern and Eastern Europe 2021 takes place from May to November 2021. The programme is mainly focused into three modules which will take place in May, September and November. Each module lasts between three to six weeks and requires approximately 10 hours per week, including participation in live online sessions, and engagement with pre-recorded material, group assignments and individual work. In between the modules, you will work on your own sustainability project with the help of expert coaching and group tasks.
SIMP 2021 will be an online programme, where various digital tools and set-ups will give you a unique, varied and interactive learning experience. The digital format of SIMP enables learning to take place over an extended period, allowing time for reflection as well as the opportunity for continuous work, both individually and together with other participants. The programme consists of the following activities:
Online sessions
Interactive live sessions via our online tools where you will meet the SIMP team, our experts and your fellow participants. In these sessions, you will explore the programme content further with our experts, with a specific focus on questions, reflections, discussions and small group tasks.
Pre-recorded material
Expert lectures and discussions that are recorded in advance so that participants can watch/listen when it fits their schedule. You should watch these in preparation for the online live sessions to learn more and explore specific topics before meeting the experts in the online sessions.
Tasks: In groups and individually
Group tasks and challenges focused on sustainable business will be reoccurring during the modules to stimulate learning from peers and to test your leadership skills. You will also have individual tasks to complete particularly in responsible leadership.
Reflection groups
You will meet digitally in smaller groups to maximise learning, build supportive relationships and gain new ideas and perspectives.
Your Initiative
The SIMP Initiative is your individual opportunity to address a sustainability challenge in your organisation. Within the programme, you will identify the challenge to work with, involve your stakeholders and colleagues as appropriate, apply your own expertise and new knowledge, and receive expert coaching to move forward in solving this challenge.
Costs covered and arranged by Swedish Institute
- Training and content
