The fourth edition of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Academy for Social Democracy

22 young Social Democrats from a variety of professional and academic fields were selected to attend this year's Academy for Social Democracy.

The aim of this Academy is to train young people of social democratic orientation, and especially those who are politically engaged or intend to be involved in the social and political life of the country.

The Academy covered a wide range of topics from economics to politics, foreign and domestic policy, etc.

Through the presentations of national and foreign lecturers, participants had the opportunity to be informed and gain practical knowledge on the values ​​of social democracy and its applications in all spheres of development of the country.

At the beginning of the first session of the Academy on October 31^st , the Head of the Foundation in Albania Stine Klapper and the program coordinator, Ms. Rezarta Ajazaj explained the importance of this academy, the social democratic values ​​as well as the good models that social democracy offers for the development of the Albanian society.

The modules allowed for the exchange of ideas with key experts, such as politicians, university lecturers, directors and researchers from various organizations and institutions, as well as representatives of civil society. Local and foreign lecturers and experts gave participants a national and international perspective of the political landscape.

Various topics were included in the main modules, namely:

The basics of social democracy

Democracy, Participation and Transparency

Economics and Social Democracy

Trade Unions and Social Democracy

Peace and Security in Social Europe

Political communication

Mass media and social movements

Welfare State, Social Justice and Social Democracy

European Social Model and EU Integration

Youth and Social Democracy

The second session of the Academy was successfully closed with an overall evaluation of the Academy made by FES organizers and staff. Ms. Stine Klapper shared the importance that these kinds of activities have on creating new networks of young people working together to tackle social issues in a more informed and professional way.