The results of the competition "Best practices for implementing educational innovations in the system of professional training for civil servants, local state administrations heads, their first deputies and deputies, local self-government officials and local councilors 2022" have been summarized. The competition is supported by the Council of Europe Program "Decentralization and Reform of Public Administration in Ukraine".
The relevant decision was approved by the National Agency on Civil Service Order No. 94-22 dated October 7, 2022.
This year's winners are:
in the nomination “Masters programme for the specialty 281 "Public management and administration" in the subject area "Public management and administration":
first place — the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” with the educational innovation "Simulator of managerial decisions and proposals" (invitations for public defenses of managerial decisions prepared by students of the Department of Theory and Practice of Management were announced);
author: Iana Yuriivna Tsymbalenko, associate professor, dean (until 30.06.2022) of the Faculty of Sociology and Law of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
The goal of implementing an educational innovation is to provide students - future managers of the public sphere - with the opportunity to gain experience in making managerial decisions in a situation of real interaction with stakeholders. This educational practice makes it possible to assess the relevance of acquired knowledge and skills in accordance with a real (albeit simulated in the educational process) problem situation and is an applied pedagogical tool. The simulator of managerial decisions (hereinafter - the simulator) is an educational innovation developed on the principles of gamification of the educational process and allows future managers to simulate and "live" a separate episode of management activity in a game form, but with the participation of experienced practitioners in the chosen fields. In the conditions of a mixed form of education, such a tool becomes especially relevant, compensating for the partial deficit of practical interaction of students with the real subject field of study.
Decision-making is a complex and multifaceted process. And the adoption of managerial decisions is a defining feature of management activity. The adopted managerial decision not only forms the activity vector of the managed system, but also ensures the achievement of the final goal and current results. The manager's ability to make decisions is the basis of an effective management system. That is why one of the key tasks of educational institutions during the training of managerial personnel is the mastering practical skills that contribute to managerial work and lead to the emergence of such a product as a managerial decision.
Iana Yuriivna Tsymbalenko, associate professor, dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Law of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, having the desire and aim to provide students - future managers - with a comprehensive vision of the issue, which will be the basis for making managerial decisions, initiated the implementation of a new approach to acquiring practical skills of managerial decision-making. In the first semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, applicants studying in the Public Administration and e-Governance OPP were involved in the professional case "Simulator of managerial decisions and proposals" within the discipline "Legal foundations of administrative activity".
Within the course of these educational practices, teams of students- managers presented the elaboration of managerial decisions at meetings with stakeholders. Representatives of authorities and interested individuals acted as stakeholders. The director of the Polytechnic Lyceum of the National Technical University of Ukraine "KPI" in Kyiv Yuriy Vasyliovych Kyrychkov was invited to the online meeting as a part of the "Document flow in secondary schools" simulator to provide professional advice;
"Managerial decisions in the system of transplantology in present-day conditions" invited the Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine for European integration in 2020-2021 — Ihor Anatoliyovych Ivashchenko to provide professional advice;
"Military Health System Administration and Management Reform" invited Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine in 2014-2015 Natalia Oleksandrivna Lisnevska and Deputy Minister of Defence on Digital Development, Digital transformation and Digitalisation Gere Yuliy Pavlovych to provide professional advice.
In addition, the results of the simulator were tested at the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Cybersecurity of State Institutions and Overcoming Crisis Situations" of the Institute of Special Communications and Information Protection Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in 2022.
It should be noted that during the mastery of the discipline "Legal foundations of administrative activity", students acquired theoretical knowledge about administrative activity, but in terms of the management component, considered a complex of issues related to the formation of the manager's vision, and the functioning of the state mechanism and its regulatory decisions. During the practical mastery of the discipline, second-year students were asked to act as top managers and find gaps or flaws in the public administration system, as well as work out ways to overcome them.
Thus, the simulator performed the role of one of the first practical tests in the profession, and in the future, during work, it can become the basis for a comprehensive approach in the scientific understanding of the process of making managerial decisions.
The simulator showed students' interest in acquiring practical management skills and gave the author of the innovation an opportunity for its further improvement and development.