Education Promotes Growth in Difficult Times: Summing up the MIM Business School and the Visegrad Fund V4 Project

Iryna Tykhomyrova, President of the MIM Business School, welcomed the participants and spoke about two important lessons of the project: "The first takeaway of the project is the future because education is always about the future. I hope that our project will not only be about the economy but will promote our victory. And another takeaway is solidarity. The solidarity of different countries and different business schools made this project possible. This cooperation is extremely important. War is a cruel thing, with violence only aggravating. Fragility of global security makes solidarity both between countries and between people extremely important."

Representatives of partner organizations shared their opinions about the program:

Jan Beseda, Head of the Centre for Distance Education at the Centre for Higher Education Studies

"When I was asked to help MIM with this project, we were very happy to support our colleagues from Ukraine. Our cooperation made this program much more successful in the Visegrad countries. I believe that both sides have benefited from the program. It was an exciting journey towards better understanding the needs of Ukrainian women much better and our further cooperation."

Stanislav Ivan, Vice President of the Linking Foundation,

"We are a non-profit organization that provides all types of education in social innovations integration projects and initiatives. Our experience helped us see the need for such a project given the things we have done before. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, we have developed women's networking in innovation, promoted entrepreneurship, and provided tools for business development. The joint project with MIM is very similar to what we have been doing and what experience we have had. I want to thank all the participants who were active in the classes and asked questions. I hope that our project will make their lives abroad in different countries easier and their businesses more successful."

Eva Rakovska, Associate Professor at the University of Economics in Bratislava,

"Our participation in the project is significant for us because it aligns with the mission of our university, which is to contribute to both teaching and research. This project is important because it demonstrates how we can unite through the Visegrad countries, cooperate within the region and involve Ukrainians. We have a lot of students from Ukraine, and I see firsthand that Ukrainian women are very smart, able to study and work hard."

Tomasz Bokor, Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest,

"When we started this project, we set out to provide business advice, and, to be honest, we didn't really know what the participants would achieve at the end. And during these months, we dove deeper and deeper, pursuing our goals. And then we realized that this is fully consistent with the key objectives of our university. Because our three main areas of work are research, economics and business administration, and social sciences. And so we realized that we could help women shape their business ideas and adapt them to the conditions of the countries where they live. Throughout this process, we realized how similar we are in the way we think and assess the situation around us."

Oleksandr Bobrovsky, Head of Corporate Projects and Programs of the MIM, expressed hope that this is just the beginning of such kind of work followed by other projects that deepen further cooperation: "The idea to start cooperation with the Visegrad Fund was born in May 2022. I am grateful to all the partners who have agreed to participate in this project - it is a privilege to work with you all. We did not limit ourselves to only teaching but promoted networking. I hope that the projects developed during the training will be useful for the countries where you live. I believe that this is the first project and we will look for ways to implement other joint programs in the future."

During the event, the participants presented their final work, or, in fact, business plans that they had been working on since the beginning of the program. These projects are adapted to the requirements of the countries where they live and plan to develop their businesses.

This project is led by CHES with funds provided by the Visegrad Fund and supported by the Visegrad Four.

Together with the MIM Business School, the project was implemented by partner organizations - Center for Higher Education, v.v.i., Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave, Corvinus University of Budapest, Linking foundation.