ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN – Fifty employees of the Kazakhstan National Railway completed a leadership and project management training program offered by the Duke Center for International Development (DCID) on Saturday, Dec. 7. The weeklong program was held in Astana.
During the program, Kazakhstan Railway employees learned about various tools and techniques to help them with change management and teambuilding. Specifically, they learned how to facilitate the change process, build effective teams with clear roles and objectives, and create an organizational culture that maintains high standards and drives growth.
“The timing for the course was perfect. We need all that knowledge on leadership, project management, and organizational behavior now in order to successfully implement our change strategy,” said participant Erzhan Terekulov of the Department for Strategic Planning and Organizational Development.
The courses were led by Ghada Ahmed, senior research analyst at the Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness at Duke University, and Matthew Nash, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Ahmed is a 2010 graduate of the Master of International Development Policy program, also offered by DCID.
This is the second program offered for Kazakhstan Railway officials. In December 2012, seven officials traveled to Duke University for a two-week program on Human Resource and Community Service Management in the Public Sector (pictured above).
“Having started cooperation with DCID last year, we are happy to continue our cooperation and we are highly satisfied with the quality of teaching Duke has to offer,” said Madina Abdirova, Deputy Head of the Center for Personnel Assessment and Development. “It will definitely help us to deal with all the challenges our company is facing today.”
DCID has been providing training to government officials in the Kazakhstan Academy of Public Administration since 2008. Last year it also began training officials in the Tax Committee of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance.
