New group starts young leaders programme |31 January 2014

The 23 students of the fourth SYLP cycle with UniSey Registrar Michel Denousse and Dr Nolan

The fourth cycle of the Seychelles Young Leaders Programme (SYLP) started on Monday this week, when the 23 selected students attended the first session of lectures in an MA degree course in leadership and strategy in the social domain.

The orientation of the fourth SYLP cycle derives from the announcement in July 2013 by President James Michel – who launched the SYLP initiative in 2008 – that ‘in view of a shortage of young leaders, professionally trained to help deal with the different social ills in different ministries or organisations, the fourth cohort of the SYLP will be focusing on this domain so that in two years’ time, Seychelles will have another group of professionals who are specialised in social work, which will help to maintain the balance of the country as it develops economically’. 

In emphasising that ‘there are certain technical resources and expertise that we will need to address….the social scourges that are menacing the fabric of our society’, the President set the context for the orientation of the fourth SYLP cycle.

Following collaboration between the University of Seychelles (UniSey), in consultation with the Seychelles Department of Social Affairs, and the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Ireland, a ‘single architecture’ leadership training programme has been devised to provide the requisite knowledge, skills and experiences to equip a cohort of Seychellois potential young leaders to contribute to leading, managing, and sustaining the government’s ongoing social renaissance programme.

The UniSey programme encompasses modules in social policy (the Seychelles context); the Seychelles Constitution; human rights issues; contemporary democracy in Seychelles; and the historical context of Seychelles.

Moreover, in collaboration with a district administrator, the students will be required to complete a key aspect of the SYLP by engaging in a special one-month district attachment programme, and completing a specific social work project related to the social renaissance agenda.

In their second year, they will undertake an overseas attachment work experience in various countries throughout the world.

The students will also attend a series of half-day mandatory French lessons, arranged by UniSey in collaboration with Alliance Française.

Building on the strengths of the MA degree course (in Leadership and Strategy) presented during the three previous cycles of the SYLP, the IPA’s MA degree course for the fourth cycle will focus on a range of key aspects and issues within the social domain, while at the same time retaining core elements of the modules studied by the graduates of the previous three cohorts.

The MA degree modules in Year One will include leadership and strategy in the social domain; social policy and administration; social organisation and strategy; financing social programmes and projects; social research methods; society and crime. In Year Two, the social work project, which features in the UniSey district attachment module at the end of Year 1, will be integrated into the MA degree dissertation as a social work topic which, under the guidance of IPA supervisors, will be focused on researching a relevant aspect of the Seychelles social renaissance agenda.

Lectures in the first session of the MA degree course were presented this week by the visiting IPA lecturers Dr Cedric Chau, Dr Tim O’Sullivan and James Connington.

The programme for the fourth SYLP cycle is devised, organised and coordinated by Lucy Athanasius, pro-vice-chancellor, UniSey, at the SYLP Office; Dr Michael Mulreany, assistant director general (Education and Research) at the IPA; and Dr John Nolan, special advisor on education to the President.