SPB Newsfeed: Learning Activities Promoting Professional Development
The Strategic Planning and Budgeting learning experience has helped me extend my professional horizon. Conversations with the CEF staff – like for such interviews – have particularly helped me reflect on my professional development in reference to the regional context and my country, as well as to the learning opportunities that are out there. I am now looking more strategically for occasions to engage with others in learning about macroeconomic issues.
*The following value creation story is provided by Dimitar Točkov, who has attended two SPB macroeconomic events and was interviewed shortly afterwards. This is a follow up story to the one from December 2014 - it is available here.
I have attended the SPB workshops on macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, managed by the CEF in 2014, with the JVI contributing the technical knowledge, and ReSPA being the host. Interviews with Luka Zupančič from the CEF helped me to reflect on my work and see how SPB events give me new learning opportunities.
At the workshops, I have observed different levels of knowledge among the participants from the SPB beneficiary countries. However, through comparing myself with colleagues from the region, I got a better understanding of opportunities to promote our domestic practice, e.g. with respect to applying computer software for macroeconomic forecasting.
At the course on macroeconomic forecasting, JVI lecturers showed us how to apply EViews econometrics software, which I now use daily at the ministry. I am progressing in it, but there is still some way to go to fully master it. In my country, not all of the officials have the chance to use and apply this software. Hence, the SPB course was a unique opportunity for me to learn more about it.
At the SPB workshops, I experienced that not all countries in South East Europe have sufficient access to suitable domestic literature and coursework on applied economics and macroeconomic forecasting. Especially young professionals have limited options to learn from senior experts, both in home countries and abroad.
Young professionals can benefit a lot from travelling abroad and joining such participatory learning activities in the region that the CEF as a knowledge hub provides. For the two SPB workshops, we spent an intensive time with colleagues from the region at ReSPA premises, which provided a good learning environment. This, together with the social program organized by the CEF and the hands-on exercises drafted by the JVI, extended my professional network with other macroeconomists in the region.
With a few of those colleagues, I have been exchanging information on further literature, such as: Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach (Upper Level Economics Titles) by J.F. Wooldridge and Basic Econometrics by D. Gujarati on applied econometrics and macroeconomic forecasting. And, upon my return to office, I shared the course literature with close colleagues at the ministry. In the meantime, all officials from the budget, macroeconomic and fiscal departments have access to it.
Later this year, I will teach macroeconomic forecasting to the trainees coming to the Ministry of Finance directly from the faculty. The technical knowledge that I gained from JVI lecturers, and the new perspectives on learning and knowledge sharing that I got from conversations with CEF learning facilitators, will surely enable me to engage our trainees in a more meaningful way.
Dimitar Točkov
Department for Macroeconomic and Fiscal Analysis and Projections
Ministry of Finance
Serbia