Training of debate clubs in Universities

About 240 students of the debate clubs of 13 Faculties and Universities in Albania were involved in the trainings developed during the month of March by Junior Achievement of Albania, which focused on the development of students' knowledge and skills in the field of competitive debate and further on the development of critical thinking, research and academic writing, in a safe way to develop their academic papers and prepare arguments in debate. This block of training represents one of the main pillars of training for increasing student capacities. Four weeks focused on the world of debate, students and beyond, in several interactive trainings which were about generating new ideas, increasing skills, making new acquaintances and spending some "good quality" time.

In the framework of the "3E-English-Entrepreneurship-Employability" project in cooperation with the American Embassy in Tirana, Junior Achievement had the opportunity to train the teams of the debate club of the 4 Faculties of Foreign Languages of the Universities in Albania in Durrës, Tirana, Elbasan and Korça, regarding the format of the debate and its main values. Students were introduced to a specific format of competitive debate and the special rules that apply to it, starting from the order of speaking to the process of argumentation and rebuttal.

In addition, 9 Universities part of the program from Tirana, Durrës, Elbasani, Korça, Vlora and students from the debate clubs of 4 Faculties of Foreign Languages were trained in the main elements of debate such as critical thinking, academic writing and research. Students had the opportunity to learn about and further develop their critical thinking and how to best use elements from the world of academic writing and research to succeed not only in their debate presentation but also on their way to employment and entrepreneurship. They also got to know in more detail some of the main rules of academic writing and what mistakes to avoid during this process.

The next training tour is expected to take place in the next month, so stay tuned.

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