European Academy Programme Friuli Venezia Giulia 2024: an edition built on the real needs of the territory
The 2024 edition of theEuropean Academy Program (EAP) Friuli Venezia Giulia, promoted by AICCRE FVG with the scientific and methodological support of ISIG, was created with a clear objective: to offer training courses that are truly responsive to the needs of local administrators, public officials and local stakeholders.
To ensure the program’s full adherence to the concrete needs of recipients, a preliminary phase of participatory listening and analysis was undertaken. Through questionnaires, focus groups and meetings with municipalities in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) was conducted to identify the most urgent training priorities.
Among the themes that emerged:access to European funding, leadership development, performance and risk management, strengthening community resilience, active citizen participation, and cross-border cooperation.
From these inputs, tailored training materials and tools were developed: agendas, presentations, customized handouts, gadgets and interactive resources designed to make each module an engaging, hands-on learning-oriented experience.
Special attention was also paid to logistics: from the widespread promotion of the initiative to the choice of residential venue for in-person modules, to the ethical and careful handling of registrations and participants.
The 2024 edition of the European Academy Program was officially inaugurated on July 31 in Udine, Italy, with a public event attended by institutional representatives and municipalities from Friuli Venezia Giulia awarded the European Governance Seal of Excellence (ELoGE) in 2023. In September, a second online event relaunched the program, engaging registered participants and presenting the upcoming training content.
The training was developed through two distinct but complementary paths:
- EAP Information, a series of four online meetings dedicated to governance, innovation, networking and resilience, which provided a useful thematic framework for all participants;
- EAP Training, an in-person course consisting of three residential modules hosted in Malborghetto and Gradisca d’Isonzo, for a total of 12 training sessions on leadership, strategic planning, territorial cooperation and European funds.
