Anna Chubotina, CEO of Arricano

 

The speed of change in the modern world is so rapid that it is difficult to keep up with it both in business and in other socially significant areas. Especially in education, where it is not so much about intellectual capabilities and achievements, but rather about the need and ability to adapt to new realities in order to confidently, competently and usefully fulfill their potential, make the most of new technologies both in online learning and in managing motivation and attention of students.

We all understand the importance of school education, which gives a basis or an impulse in life, in acquiring the skills to study, knowledge, and often in choosing a profession. During this period, schoolchildren go through the most important stage of becoming themselves as a person. And along this way, together with the family, teachers give a key ideological orientation.

Lockdown and the forced transition of education to an online format faced many difficulties, the main of which is the need for a new model of interaction between teachers and schoolchildren through gadgets and screens. Traditional school practices of interaction in the classroom have not always been effective in the distance format.

Reflecting on this issue, at Arricano we came to the conclusion that if we strengthen the two components of online learning, we can significantly increase the efficiency of the entire cycle of the educational process at school. Both the first and the second components concern teachers, namely their computer skills and self-motivation to overcome difficulties, learn new things in order to transfer this competence of curiosity and adaptability to change to children.

Therefore, as part of the corporate ESG policy of social projects, we have developed Teachers’ Self Upgrade that is a teacher training program meeting new challenges in the educational field. Since two of our shopping malls are located in the Desnianskyi district of Kyiv, the Prospekt shopping mall became a springboard for the implementation of our idea.

Our team, which was engaged in the implementation of Teachers’ Self Upgrade, together with Desnianska district State Administration, conducted research among teachers of this district and found out what topics of courses are relevant for them, what additional questions and suggestions may appear. It is worth noting that we are able to hold memorable BTL events and negotiations, communicate with all stakeholders of the shopping mall brand, create a bright and motivating creative. But to develop a training program for teachers, external expertise was needed.  We turned to the profile public organization "Osvitoriia", together with which a list of speakers and topics of lectures were proposed. This is an effective assessment of students' knowledge in a distance format, and a new role of a teacher for generation Z and Alpha, who have a new understanding of authorities, and digital technologies & life hacks, and the multiple intelligence of schoolchildren about how they perceive reality. I would especially like to mention the Meet&Talk discussion, during which teachers voiced the need for the formation of the teacher's brand as a profession and the interpretation of the elite of Ukrainian society. Personally, I completely agree that teachers are really the elite of our country. After all, all five characteristics of the elite are inherent in the pedagogical community, and these are responsibility, leadership, a stable community that controls the consciousness of a thousand schoolchildren, having common interests.

We held a meeting with teachers in the style of a business conference. This gave the project and its participants additional value, motivation and status. Based on the responses, we realized that the teachers felt that their work, efforts, work and creative solutions were important.  Teachers were not left alone with the new challenges of online. Society, business, and local authorities are ready to support them. About 150 teachers from the capital received a charge for self-motivation and acquired new skills for effective online classes.

I want to thank all our partners who have joined the Teachers' Self Upgrade project in Prospekt shopping mall to conduct a unique social and educational project that has no analogues in the retail and development market. These are Multiplex, which has allocated a hall for a business conference, as well as FMCG, fashion, NGO and media brands:Desnianska district State Administration, "Osvitoriia", EBA, "Wikend u Kyievi", "Tyzhden",TV Channel "Kyiv", Ad.A.Agency, VOVK, COLIN'S, MAY Ukraine.

For Arricano, educational projects have always been a priority in the social component. In our corporate portfolio there are projects for cooperation with students, schoolchildren, and now also with teachers. We also regularly conduct training for the company's employees - both on the basis of the platform of the European Business Association, and we attract corporate trainers. Employees independently develop and present their professional achievements to colleagues.

We believe in the power, effective impact and necessity of education and self-education, motivation and self-motivation, the importance of developing new skills and competencies. And the Teachers' Self Upgrade social and educational project proved once again that a modern professional shopping mall is a flexible, sensitive social space for people, where you can get both consumer experience and implement socially important interactions with the community of the shopping mall, filling and developing certain aspects of public life. In this case – education, adaptability and new pedagogical life hacks, without which it is impossible to imagine modern education.