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Participant Training Program (PTP)

The Regional Participant Training Program (PTP) has been managed by World Learning since 1992. It is funded by the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the START contract.

Overview

Under this program World Learning - a non-governmental organization with its headquarters in Vermont and offices in Washington DC and over 70 countries worldwide - manages job-related training for senior-level professionals.

World Learning works through its six field offices in Central Europe to identify local organizations – public, private, and non-governmental – whose staffs will benefit from a short–term (two weeks, on average) tailored training program in an area that will strengthen that country's social, political, and economic development.

Training Program Design and Delivery

Training takes place in the trainees' home country, in another country in Europe ("Third Country Training"), and in the U.S., in areas such as banking, local government, media, law, political parties and elections, NGO organization, small business development, and social policy reform. Training programs are designed specifically for the participants' needs, and combine classroom instruction with professional meetings, on-site observation, and action planning.

Since World Learning started this program over twelve years ago, the delivery of training programs has been contracted out to nearly a thousand institutions in the US - colleges and universities, private institutions, minority institutions, business and professional associations - and to over 200 organizations within Central Europe. More than 26,000 professionals have been trained under this program (50% of whom are women) and over $8m. is spent annually on participant training fees.

Training for Results

Among those changes brought about as a result of training under this program:

• On their return to Romania a group of participants organized a major cervical cancer testing program that so far has tested over 3,000 women
• Deposits in small credit unions in Albania have increased by between 25% and 100% following a Third Country Training program in Hungary for their leaders
• A group of candidates from 5 Slovak political parties credit the Manual for Election Campaigning that they had developed during their U.S. training for their successful election to parliament
• A participant from Bosnia-Herzegovina who trained in NGO advocacy established on his return home the School for Human Rights
• Another Bosnia participant upgraded his company from a small car trading business to a holding company with 750 employees and an annual turnover of over $100m.
• These are just a few of the dozens of Success Stories we have in our files. View the complete list here.

World Learning's Washington, DC office and field offices

The Washington office is responsible for overall management of the training, and for procuring, managing, and monitoring U.S. and Third Country Training. World Learning's field offices in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, and Macedonia are responsible for assisting USAID with country training planning, con-ducting needs analyses, participant selection, testing and processing, managing in-country training, and training follow-up and small grants administration. In addition the field offices support other USAID technical assistance contractors with processing their candidates for training.

World Learning and USAID staff and participants at an Awards Ceremony in Bosnia.

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A group of Bulgarian IT specialists in Silicon Valley, working on a country strategy.

An Albanian city improves solid waste removal after training and a grant.

A group from Macedonia visiting New Salem Historic Site, where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years.

The view from the the World Learning office in the Croatian capital.

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http://www.worldlearning.org/wlid/ptp-e.html

Last modified: 19-Oct-2004