The nature of how people run businesses is changing. It used to be all about economic wealth, but today holistic purposes are considered. Leaders are expected to use their businesses to help solve problems like protecting the environment and addressing social issues. Higher education institutions play a big role in training future leaders with a responsible mindset, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals provide a roadmap and an agenda for the world to be pursued.
Every year PRME, an initiative supported by the United Nations Global Compact with the mission to inspire and champion responsible management education, research and thought leadership globally. The main annual event of the initiative is the PRME Global Forum which provides a platform for a global debate on how business education can help advance the sustainable development agenda worldwide. Participants of the 11th Edition of the Forum are business school administrators, faculty, students, businesses and sustainable development organizations. In 2023, the Responsible Management Education Week took place on 12 – 16 June 2023, in New York (USA) with the main event of the week – the PRME Global Forum.
Last June, the PRME community focused on impact across various session themes: pedagogy, climate, digital, and leadership. Moreover, it was the first in-person forum in the last 6 years.
Almaty Management University is proud that the representatives of its team actively involve in PRME projects. One of them is Aurora Díaz Soloaga, Senior Lecturer of the School of Management, a member of the global Expert Pedagogy Group convened from PRME Chapters around the world working on an innovative and transformative project to transform leadership education in business schools and beyond helping deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals through responsible leadership.
It was a very fruitful week in which Aurora participated in several meaningful events:
On Monday 11th, Aurora facilitated the i5 workshop where the experts promoted and shared the main and first outcome of the i5 project: the collaborative playbook tha was already published. The dimensions of the system were presented with all the other ExPedGroup (the experts of the Pedagogy Group, from 18 different places of the world).
On Tuesday 12th, Aurora participated in the roundtable with other experts who worked on or sponsored the project. The i5 playbook gives concrete options to play the pedagogical game of developing responsible leaders in the classrooms.
The week included various meetings for the Champions, which were organized to connect the PRME community from different places and organizations and to look for the possibilities of further cooperation.
On Wednesday 13th, at the UN Headquarters, Aurora received a very special award for the work of the last 1,5 years. This i5 Award of Excellence presented to Aurora recognized “outstanding work of hers as an Expert Pedagogy Member of The Impactful Five (i5): Learning in Leadership Education project and contributions toward pedagogical adoption of playful learning for holistic development in higher education”.
The AlmaU team expresses its deep appreciation and gratitude to Ms. Aurora for her unshakable contribution to the development of the education system and the recognition of AlmaU in the international expert community! We wish you prospects and wellbeing!