The "School of Mayors" program aims to prepare mayors as well as social and political activists who, in future, will be candidates in mayoral elections or members of mayors’ urban management teams working in a decentralised context and in accordance with public administration standards.
Local governments in Ukraine are currently facing challenges that are similar to those which Poland has successfully tackled some time ago. Thus it is important for Ukrainian mayors and their teams to get acquainted with the experience of Polish local governments and the "School of Mayors" programme aims to achieve this goal. The whole course is held at the MIM-Kyiv School of Business which was ranked first among Ukrainian business schools in the "Excellent business school" category according to the Eduniversal ranking in 2015.
The programme, the first edition of which was held before the last year's local elections in Ukraine, aims to develop the growth management potential of the local authorities. The course consists of 3 components: lectures, practical classes and study visits in Polish cities.
Last year, three out of 13 teams participating in the first edition of the programme won the local elections held that year. The incumbent mayors of Nikolaev, Zhytomyr and the city of Boyarka are graduates of the "School of Mayors". As many as 11 teams, a total of 50 people including 5 teams under the leadership of incumbent mayors (Mariupol, Vugledar, Kachivka, Skadovsk and Kuznetsovs'k) and 7 teams with candidates for mayors (Kharkiv, Uzhgorod, Poltava, Makariw, Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky, Wysznewe and Tarasivka) take part in the project this year.
The participants of the "School of Mayors" have already met with representatives of Lublin authorities and municipal office departments. They learnt about such issues as how to elaborate and implement the city development strategy, how to attract investors and build the city brand, etc. The agenda of the Ukrainian guests’ visit to Lublin included also some sightseeing of the city.
