best annual report 2013-2014

A N N U A LR E P O R T2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4b o a r d o f e u r o p e a n s t u d e n t s o f t e c h n o l o g y

Board of European Students of Technology

Avenue Roger Vandendriessche 181150 Brussels

BELGIUM

[email protected]

facebook.com/BESTorgflickr.com/photos/BESTorg

twitter.com/BESTorglinkedin.com/company/best

Ricardo Nuno OliveiraCoordinator

Patrcia PiresDesigner

Cenk SavaoullarPhotography Selection

WritersAlejandro Snchez Medina

Alexia SpyridonidouAna Rita Gonalves

Ana Rosaar BaaranCorina Stirbu

Harald RupprechterIoana Jivet

Javier Martin Joo Pacheco

Judit GyeneseKaterina Koutsonikoli

Klemen KrulecLibor eda

Majd Mekouar OuazzaniMathieu Vandenberghe

Michele DamatoMihai CepoiMihai Tociu

Natalia Mazur

Olcay SarOscar Marginean

Oya Merve Duman Patricia DiaconuPedro Cardoso

Raili VunkTiago Monteiro

Vicente Mauricio Quintana Vlad Gliga

Yasemin Baran

A N N U A LR E P O R T2 0 1 3 | 2 0 1 4

A WELCOME WORD FROM THE BOARDIt is 1987, an event called International Week takes place in Stockholm, Sweden, having as purpose to support the exchange of students between several universities. Sadly, the meeting had no clear conclusion.It is 1988, the second International Week takes place in Grenoble, France, where the idea of creating a European Association that will strengthen the relations between European Universities emerges. This association would be called BEST.It is now one year later in the late 80s, 1989. BEST has its most important meeting in Berlin, Germany, where the statutes and the strategy of the organisation were created. Exactly 18 founding members participated to shape the core and identity.Far into the future, 25 years later. Twenty five years! An important milestone for BEST. For 25 years BEST has grown exponentially and beyond the dreams of the founding members. Starting from 18 local groups and reaching 95 this year, BEST has had a huge impact not only on its members but also on its stakeholders. The past year has been an adventurous journey with new dreams, projects and challenges. It was a year of reflection where often we would question our working methods and take a look at the big picture to see if our structure was aligned to our services which we provide to our stakeholders. Our organisation has managed to have a true impact on the lives of students of technology via our services and we continually try to live up to their expectations. It was a visionary year, where we re-evaluated what our aim are and what should BEST focus on the upcoming years. Lastly, it was a year of celebration, where each member felt proud to be part of the biggest European organisation of students of technology as we looked back upon our accomplishments and celebrated our achievements during our 25th anniversary of BEST. For 25 years the organisation has remained true to its values and they have guided its members to reach for the stars and create a bigger impact for our stakeholders: companies, universities, and of course, students! We would like to acknowledge everyone who has contributed in making the past year a great one for BEST. Thank you for your support and believing in us. We hope you will enjoy reading this Annual Report, where every part reflects upon the daily work done by passionate students, for students.

Yours faithfully,

The XXVI International Board of BESTMihai Tociu President

Patricia Diaconu Treasurer Katerina Koutsonikoli Secretary

Klemen Krule Vice-President for External Services Javier Martin Vice-President for Internal Support

Vicente Maurcio Vice-President for Local Group Support

CONT

ENTS 616

2232445662

ABOUT BEST

SERVICES

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

PUBLIC RELATIONS

PARTNERS OF BEST

WHAT IS BEST? 7STRUCTURE OF BEST 8INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT 10PROFILE OF BEST MEMBERS 12

MEMBERS AND STATISTICS 12RELATIONS WITH ALUMNI 14GROWTH OF BEST 15

BEST ANNIVERSARY PROJECT 17KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 18MARKET RESEARCH 19

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BEST 20PUBLIC WEBSITE 21

BEST COURSES 23EBEC PROJECT 24BEST CAREER SUPPORT 26BEST CAREER DAY 27

BEST CAREER CENTER 28EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENT 29EVENTS ON EDUCATION 30

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW 33TRAINING SYSTEM 36QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TRAINING 37

IT SYSTEMS 38INTERNAL EVENTS 40

YOUTH IN ACTION 45SEFI 46FEANI 47PARTNER NGOS 48

YOUTH FORUM JEUNESSE 50ROUND TABLE 50PROMOTING VIRTUAL MOBILITY IN PLACEMENTS 52INTEL BUSINESS CHALLENGE 53

WEEF 54INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETITION 55

6A B O U T B E S T

ABOUTBEST

7A B O U T B E S T

WHAT IS BEST?The story of BEST (Board of Euro-pean Students of Technology) dates back to April 1989, when the idea of an international, non-political stu-dent organisation was born with the aim to connect Europe. Twenty five years later, we are far more than the sum of our 95 Local BEST groups (LBGs). Our work impacts students, universities and industrial partners in 33 countries across Europe.

Although over the years our members have come and gone and our activ-ities have matured and developed, the vision of BEST has always been the same: Empowered diversity. By providing complementary education through BEST Courses and Compe-titions, we bring added value to for-mal education. We provide a struc-tured way for engineering students to give input on their education and therefore give them the chance to im-prove their learning. Students have the opportunity to develop their ca-

reer prospects by using the BEST Ca-reer Support (BCS) services and learn skills relevant to their professional development and reach their full po-tential. These activities are all about developing students, giving them an insight to different mindsets, there-by reaching a better understanding of cultures and societies. Our events give students the opportunity to de-velop the capacity to work in a cul-turally diverse environment so as to improve their soft-skills.

BEST is a constantly growing organ-isation always seeking improvement and achievements. All of the work is done for students and by students and we aim to broaden the horizon of students of technology. Our actions are inspired by our values. Through flexibility, we are open to quickly re-spond to change. We always aim for improvement by continuously rais-ing the standards in everything we do. We value friendship through build-

8A B O U T B E S T

ing good personal relations and sup-porting teamwork. We strive to make our activities enjoyable to everybody who is connected to them and value everything we learn through the ex-perience of being involved in our ac-tivities where we have the freedom

to share and develop ideas. After 25 years, BEST is still challenging per-ceptions related to the development of technical students. What we have accomplished so far is only the begin-ning of our story.

STRUCTURE OF BESTCovering 33 countries and reaching 1.300.000 technical students, BEST has grown into a substantial Europe-an organisation. There are 95 Local BEST Groups, spread around Europe, forming the core of the organisation. Each group is present at exactly one university, has its own local board, its own practices, traditions and culture. Like pieces of a puzzle, each of them has its own shape and place in BEST. The groups are connected with each other by the common values of BEST which every BEST member endorses as their own. This connection em-powers BEST as a strong organisation providing services for European stu-dents of technology.

Built on the basis of the local groups, several international teams work to provide support to the groups. Spread over international teams of diverse size and aim, approximately 15% of our active members work in all sorts of domains - from marketing to IT, from

educational involvement to career support, training and competitions.

The biggest international teams, the BEST Committees, can be seen as an equivalent to corporate departments. There are six committees of BEST and each has a distinct area of ex-pertise. These areas are Educational, Financial, External Events, Training, IT and Marketing. Each of these is led by a coordinator who ensures the coher-ence of the activities with the other bodies of BEST.

Another indispensable aspect of the international work in the organisation, are the BEST projects. Various proj-ects take place every year and involve members of different committees as well as local group members who are not otherwise internationally involved. The need to move towards a structure with a bigger focus on projects than committees was highlighted among the outcomes of the Structure Eval-

9A B O U T B E S T

uation project which took place this year.

At the top level, BEST has an Inter-national Board that represents the organisation, coordinates the differ-ent bodies of BEST, ensures good communication between them and

facilitates the global development of programmes and activities. It consists of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President for External Services, Vice-President for Internal Support and Vice-President for Local Group Support.

EBECfT

INTER

NAT

IONAL

BOARD

ITC

TiGro EduCo mT MR PWS KM

BAP

GWG

COMMITTEESSMALL

PROJECTS

PROJECTS

fT Financial TeamEEC External Events CommitteeITC Information Technology CommitteeTiGro Training GroupEduCo Educational CommitteemT Marketing Committee

MR Market ResearchPWS Public WebsiteBAP BEST Anniversary ProjectKM Knowledge Management

GWG Grants Working GroupEBEC European BEST Engineering Competition

LBGLocal BEST Group

RARegional Advisor

(11 in total)

EEC

LBGs

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A B O U T B E S T

At General Assembly Valladolid 2013, the International Management of BEST was elected for the year 2013/2014. The team prepared and ensured the execution of the Annual Action Plan of BEST for the respective mandate. The work of the In-ternational Management was highly inter-connected with intense joint efforts and cooperation to ensure the accomplishment of their respective responsibilities. Addi-tionally, each coordinator had responsibilities and teams related to their respective field of work.

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF BEST

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A B O U T B E S T

President Mihai TociuTreasurer Patricia DiaconuSecretary Katerina KoutsonikoliVice-President for External Services Klemen KruleVice-President for Internal Support Javier Martin ZamoraVice-President for Local Group Support Vicente Maurcio

Educational Committee Coordinator Mikhail TikhonovExternal Events Committee Coordinator Pedro CardosoFinancial Team Coordinator Andreea NicuInformation Technology Committee Coordinator Alejandro Snchez MedinaMarketing Committee Coordinator Judit GyeneseTraining Group Coordinator Harald Rupprechter

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A B O U T B E S T

PROFILE OF BEST MEMBERS

MEMBERS AND STATISTICS

Internationally Minded

Proactive & Creative

Succesful inProject Management

Experienced in ManagingLocal and International Teams

Undergraduatesor Recent Graduates

Trained inSoft-skills

Work and Study Experiencein International Environments

Comfortable with Travelthroughout Europe

Experienced in Workingin Virtual Teams

Team Players

BEST by

COUNTRIES

13

A B O U T B E S T

58%42%

GENDER

2011

BEST MEMBERS

2014

2013

2012

2011

14

A B O U T B E S T

RELATIONS WITH ALUMNIThe Alumni Network of BEST is aimed at maintaining and developing con-nections between former members. This network serves as a platform for professional networking for the thou-sands of alumni based throughout the world. Moreover, the Alumni Net-work also provides a medium through which the former members can pro-vide support and keep in contact with the current members.

The Alumni of BEST use several on-line channels to keep in touch: mail-ing lists and dedicated groups on so-cial networks. Additionally, multiple events are organised throughout the year where former members meet to discuss and network. Alumni Meetings

took place in parallel to the General Meetings in November 2013 in Brno, Czech Republic (20 participants) and April 2014 in Bucharest, Romania (55 participants). In October 2013, the 3rd edition of the Alumni Business Camp was held in Brussels, Belgium and gathered 89 participants at the event itself and 117 people at the official dinner.

This year the alumni world embarked on a journey to create more value out of the network. New initiatives to-wards creating a new Alumni Directo-ry, initiating a mentoring programme and maybe even incorporating the Alumni Network as a non-profit entity are currently being developed.

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A B O U T B E S T

GROWTH OF BESTBEST has always strived for diversity and sustainability and therefore has always welcomed new groups while simultaneously ensuring the stabili-ty of our existing groups. New groups bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to the organisation.

In 2014, BEST established a second group in Germany, extending its reach in the country, providing its services to an even wider audience and develop-ing further relationship with German universities.

9546 64 80

1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014LOCAL BEST GROUPS

COUNTRIES

3318 20 26 3012

3114

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A B O U T B E S T

HIGHLIGHTSOF THE

YEAR

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H I G H L I G H T S O f T H E Y E A R

BEST ANNIVERSARY PROJECTThe year 2014 is a very special one for every BEST member. BEST is ce- lebrating 25 years of existence. Since 1989 we have had various and signifi-cant achievements which established us the role of one of the most im-portant youth associations in Europe. During this year we celebrate precise-ly this. We celebrate our growth, evo-lution and our strong belief in our val-ues; mission and vision of BEST.

Together with this important mile-stone, we also celebrate five Editions of EBEC Final and 10 years of Engi-neering Competitions, has led us to create the BEST Anniversary Project to recognise all these achievements.

In terms of events, we have organised to celebrate the five editions of EBEC, an evening dedicated to our accom-plishments, where we invited EBEC participants and company partners. During General Assembly Bucharest 2014, we celebrated our 25th Anni-versary with representatives from all

our Local Groups, alumni and special-ly invited guests.

We have had many things worth cel-ebrating lately, both live and virtual-ly. Virtually, through social media, we are well-known across Europe for our accomplishments in all our organisa-tions focus areas; namely Education and Career Support. We have also published three booklets dedicated to our services in order to promote them and also thank our stakehold-ers for their support. These booklets focus on: Educational Involvement, EBEC and Seasonal Courses.

During the last two years, we have strengthened the bonds between the members of our organisation, alumni and our stakeholders. Without all of these people, BEST would not be the vibrant and special organisation it is today and we would like to thank all of you for all your support over the years.

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H I G H L I G H T S O F T H E Y E A R

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTOne of the focus areas of the Long Term Strategic Plan 2012-2015 (LTSP) is Knowledge Management. The ob-jectives of this focus area include having a well-structured, sustain-able, and easily accessible Knowl-edge Management System, as well as promoting a culture of documenting our work, sharing knowledge, in addi-tion to using and developing existing knowledge.

In March 2013, the Knowledge Man-agement workshop took place in Riga, Latvia, as a first step towards achiev-ing the goals of the Knowledge Man-agement focus area under the current LTSP. This workshop had a very direct impact on how BEST members work, in any scope of their activity - from new members joining LBGs to train-ers, committee members and interna-tional management.

The concrete outcome of the work-shop is a set of 24 projects that are planned to be implemented in the final two years of the current LTSP under the Knowledge Management

Project. For the previous year, ten projects were selected. Several of the projects address the Knowledge Management infrastructure on our internal database Private Area (PA): a design of a page dedicated to Knowl-edge Management in BEST, a map of all the knowledge of BEST, the de-velopment of a tool to facilitate easy access to all of our knowledge (the BEST Library) and the redesign of our committee pages. Other projects are aimed at improving the social aspect of Knowledge Management, including the redesign of our knowledge man-agement training for BEST members, the introduction of Knowledge Fairs as a sharing platform during BEST events and a redefinition of the pur-pose of our common sharing mail-ing lists. Most of these projects are planned to be finalised by the end of the current BEST year.

19


MARKET RESEARCHIn a diverse and evolving environ-ment, adapting to changes is the key to maximising our contribution to-wards our stakeholders. BEST, aim-ing to evolve and meet challenges efficiently, places the Strategy of External Services as a major focal point. We initiated this effort in or-der to observe how the needs of our stakeholders change and how our services align to these new needs.

BEST Market Research is the proj-ect through which we reach our stakeholders, get insights regarding their needs and our role in fulfilling them. It is our way of transmitting the voice of the external world to the relevant bodies and support-ing the decision making process re-garding the strategic planning pro-cess of BEST as an organisation.

This project is structured according to our three different stakeholders: students, universities and compa-nies with all three reached through three individually designed surveys. Regarding students, BEST Student Survey was launched in February 2013 with the goal of gathering in-sight concerning their experience

and expectations towards comple-mentary education, educational in-volvement and career support. In total, 2.900 students were reached throughout Europe. Universities were reached through interviews to assess their perceptions on the im-pact student organisations should have towards universities, to inves-tigate what services such organisa-tions should provide and to seek out opportunities for future col-laboration. Finally, companies were approached through phone call in-terviews with the intention of as-sessing the contribution student organisations have and to seek po-tential cooperation in other fields.

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what no-body else has thought, as Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said. BEST Mar-ket Research represents the begin-ning of a beautiful status, a status no one else has thought of.

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H I G H L I G H T S O F T H E Y E A R

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BESTIn 2009, ten years after establishing a defined identity of BEST, we decid-ed to develop an advanced Market-ing Strategy and since 2006 no ma-jor changes were made. However, the Marketing Strategy Project was started by the XXI BEST Board and since then it has had several outcomes such as the BEST Brands Book and the Communication Plans and Mar-keting Strategy Guidelines.

In 2010, there was an Identity Work-shop in Ghent, Belgium, to evaluate if the identity we had was appropriate for our organisation. As we became more enveloped in the digitised era and surrounded by digital bits, once again, the Marketing Strategy proj-ect came back again in the BEST big picture in 2013. The purpose was to create an advanced marketing plan for BEST that clarified its image and served its needs and it became part of the Long Term Strategic Plan of BEST.

During the Marketing Strategy Short Intensive Meeting Vienna, Austria, all the BEST services were re-analysed. European BEST Engineering Competi-tion (EBEC) got more atten-

tion and during International Projects Forum Lisbon 2014 the five services of BEST were defined. These services were: BEST as an organisation, com-plementary education, career support, educational involvement and EBEC. For each service, a defined message for each stakeholder was developed, selling points were evaluated and the communication channels for the cur-rent situation were adapted.

The marketing side of BEST made a step forward and adapted all its ac-tivities to this new market in order to clarify the BEST image.

As Robert Rose said: Marketing is tell-ing the world youre a rock star. Con-tent marketing is showing the world that you are one. Nowdays, BEST is a rock star and we showed it during these 25 years by sharing the same values and mission, organising ten years of competition and five years of EBEC. In the end, challenges will drive the teamwork across borders and a rock star will never stop showing its success.

21


PUBLIC WEBSITEThe World Wide Web started in the early 90s by being a simple set of hypertext documents accessible by browsers; now websites have a sub-stantial impact on the institutional image of an organisation. In BEST, the website serves as the primary plat-form for students to interact with the services we provide. Due to these fac-tors and the feedback from our stake-holders, creating a new website for BEST has been considered a strate-gic priority for the organisation for the period 2012-2015.

For this endeavour, we have decided to stick to our culture of develop-ing projects in-house by harnessing the technical knowledge we possess along with our network of alumni with professional experience in the area of web design.

During this year, we focused on as-sessing the technical feasibility and creating the structure of one appli-cation, as well as developing a top-notch Content Managing System. In order for this process to go as smooth as possible we have assembled a team which is responsible for imple-menting everything we planned to do. After this step is completed, the only thing remaining is the launch of the new website between April - May.

www.BEST.eu.org

SERVICES

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S E R V I C E S

BEST COURSESOne of the complementary education activities BEST provides to students are BEST Courses. Courses, organised by the 95 LBGs all over Europe, give students the opportunity to com-bine traditional lectures with alterna-tive forms of education. Furthermore, with the social and cultural activities courses provide, students can experi-ence a multicultural environment and gain new and wonderful friendships. Every year, more than 2.000 students take part in BEST Courses.

Applications for BEST Courses are submitted through the BEST website.Participants are chosen based on their motivation letters, interest on the topic of the course and the culture of the country. Cultural diversity is one of the most important aspects when selecting participants. At the end of the course, participants are evaluated on their knowledge or skills acquired during the course. Participants, who successfully pass evaluation, obtain a BEST Course certificate and a Course Information Form (CIF). CIFs can be

recognised by the participants home university and used towards to stu-dents degree.

With over 20 years of experience, BEST has developed course stan-dards. All LBGs follow these in order to sustain and constantly improve the quality of their courses. Both these aspects make BEST courses widely recognised by students, universities, companies and partner associations across Europe. After every course, students are asked to fill an evalua-tion form which BEST gets a chance to control the development of our courses. BEST is always striving to im-prove the services offered to Europe-an students of technology.

Above all, BEST Courses bring stu-dents unforgettable memories and unique experiences of interacting with people from different backgrounds, cultures and traditions; all while learning and developing themselves through complementary and atypical university education.

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S E R V I C E S

EBEC PROJECTEuropean BEST Engineering Com-petition (EBEC) Project is one of the biggest real-time based engineering competition organised by students in Europe. It brings its main stake-holders: companies, universities and students together under a competi-tive environment where participants present and develop their skills, thus not only practicing their theoretical knowledge, but also developing their role as a member of European society thanks to tackling real world prob-lems. In the past years, EBEC has been very successful due to its sustainabil-ity and permanently increasing stan-dards. Having started as an initiative in 2008, the project has reached a strong position among the services that BEST provides towards technol-ogy students.

The EBEC project has two competition categories: Case Study and Team De-sign. The project welcomes teams in groups of four, who are currently en-rolled in an educational programme where an EBEC round is present.

Complementary education is the main focus of the EBEC project. The application of theoretical knowledge

into practice is expected by involving participants in real life problems with time-limited conditions.

The EBEC Project is kicked-off by a local round in all participating Local BEST Groups; the winners of local rounds are invited to national or re-gional rounds. The winners of these secondary rounds qualify for the EBEC Final event where they compete for the title: BEST Engineers of Europe.

Last year, EBEC Final 2013 was held in Warsaw, Poland. The event itself was supported by Warsaw University of Technology, as well as several im-portant institutions such as the Min-istry of Science and Higher Educa-tion, the Copernicus Science Center and leading industry partners such as Procter & Gamble, GSE, IVECO, Deut-sche Bahn, GE and the European Pat-ent Office.

After the accomplishment of EBEC Final 2013, BEST has set its sights to EBEC Final 2014. This year EBEC Final 2014 was held in the European Cap-ital of Culture, Riga, Latvia. The proj-ect has enjoyed its largest number of participants; with Local EBEC Rounds

25

S E R V I C E S

held at 87 leading technical univer-sities in 32 countries where BEST is present.

EBEC Final 2014 has been supported with interest by several institutes such as Riga Technical University, UNESCO Latvian National Commission and the International Federation of Engineer-ing Education Societies (IFEES).

The EBEC Project serves as a platform for technology students and is voluntarily organised by BEST members who are also technology students of European universities where BEST is present. The project strives to bring its stakeholders closer and to enable further interaction among them so that future engineers - the citizens of Europe - will benefit the most.

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013LOCAL ROUNDS

NATIONAL/REGIONAL ROUNDS

1313 151310

71 78 837150

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S E R V I C E S

BEST CAREER SUPPORTOne of the features that makes BEST a really unique non-profit organisa-tion is being a wide-spread one, uni-fied under a common mission and vision. Established in 95 European technical universities, BEST ensures a broad range of students.

Since one of the purposes of BEST is to connect students with companies, several international bodies of this organisation, helped by LBGs, have developed many services to reach this goal: one of which is BEST Career Support (BCS).

On the one hand, BCS is a service that every student can take advantage of, the only prior requirement is that the student attends or attended a univer-sity in which there is an LBG.

The procedure to use this service is really simple: firstly there is the sub-scription to BEST website; then, there is the filling of Curriculum Vitae with personal data and relevant work in-formation according to the European standard model and finally there is the subscription to the BCS service.

On the other hand, BEST engages in partnerships with companies, provid-ing them high quality services. These companies cover all engineering fields and this is because of the broad range of students reached through BEST. Companies can present themselves and job offers to all the students who subscribed to BCS. Furthermore, com-panies can have access to the BEST CVs database to recruit students who fill their criteria and interests.

Student diversity is also clearly ob-servable during live events. Over one year, BEST takes care of the organisa-tion of several job fairs and engineer-ing competitions around Europe. The most important ones are organised during the three biggest BEST events during an academical year: Presidents Meeting (PM), BEST Career Day (BCD) during General Assembly (GA) and EBEC Final. In these kind of events, companies have the opportunity to meet talented engineering students who likewise have the chance to in-teract with top companies in the en-gineering field.

In conclusion, BCS is divided in two main categories. The first one is repre-sented by our online tools and takes the name of BEST Career Centre (BCC). The second one consists of the in-person events with students such as job fairs and engineering compe-titions.

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S E R V I C E S

BEST CAREER DAYAfter the success of inviting exter-nal students to participate in Official Opening Day in GA 2013, we provid-ed this opportunity again this year. Following the rapid uptake of these events, we have developed this ser-vice into a new brand: BEST Career Day. Recent or graduating students from 95 top engineering universities can apply for this event. After pre-se-lection, a list of the most promising applicants is delivered to partners, who can select the participants they want to meet during BCD..

BCD allows students to personally discuss their career with top manag-ers and international recruiters. They get the chance to learn about the lastest industry trends and most lu-crative career opportunities. The first part of the day includes presentations and workshops for students held by partners. During the second part of the day the job fair and personal in-

terviews take place, so partners can interact directly and personally with over 400 future engineers who match their participants profile. The CVs of all participants were available for partners before the career fair, thus enabling access to a large and de-tailed database of potential appli-cants. At the end of the day there is a cocktail party, allowing networking with a selected group of engineers.

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S E R V I C E S

BEST CAREER CENTERBEST Career Center is the collection of all the online recruitment oppor-tunities BEST Career Support offers. Here, students can find detailed infor-mation about our partners including job and internship opportunities they provide. Such information is available to anyone who visits the BEST web-site.

In order to be up to date with all the opportunities our partners offer, an account on the BEST website and subscription to BEST Career Support is needed. This account also serves as the CV of the students as it col-lects information regarding their ca-reer, educational and extra-curricular activities. This year, more than 6.200 CVs were created.

This tool not only makes it easier for our partner companies and uni-versities to have an overview of the students in our database, but also

enables us to define the appropriate target groups for our services, so that relevant opportunities can reach only interested subscribers.

The most apparent function of BEST Career Center is through BEST Ca-reer Newsletters. These are target-ed e-mails that we send out to our 37.000 subscribers which include ca-reer opportunities of a partner. Since these e-mails are targeted, our sub-scribers receive the newsletter only if they have the necessary qualifica-tions such as language proficiency or educational background.

All of the aforementioned online ser-vices form the BEST Career Center and through these BEST is able to of-fer valuable opportunities to students and recent graduates to start their ca-reer in their home country or through-out Europe.

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S E R V I C E S

EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENTIn collaboration with Thematic Net-works and Higher Educational Insti-tutions, BEST provides technical stu-dents with opportunities to express their opinions about European Engi-neering Education (EEE). We believe students have an essential impact on their own education, therefore BEST transmits students opinions to the key players for EEE.

The Educational Committee of BEST provides students every year with op-portunities to express their opinion on EEE topics through surveys and by gathering students in live events named Events on Education (EoEs).

By attending conferences in the field of Higher Education, BEST is able not only to network with experts on ed-ucational matters, but also to pres-

ent the outcomes of the aforemen-tioned EoEs. This year, topics related with BEST engineering competitions, interdisciplinarity, virtual mobility and employability were presented.

During this year, BEST cooperated with EUROEAST and PROVIP as edu-cational institutions. Via social media, BEST promoted mobility programmes provided by EUROEAST. Through col-laboration with PROVIP, members of the Educational Committee partici-pated in partner meetings in order to express the students point of view on the topic of virtual mobility. Moreover, the Educational Committee collabo-rated with PROVIP in an Event on Ed-ucation in Timisoara, Romania.

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S E R V I C E S

EVENTS ON EDUCATIONBesides Courses and Engineering Competitions, BEST also organises Events on Education (EoEs). These are seminars that last approximate-ly six days, gather up to 25 students with different nationalities and focus on evaluating and contributing to the development of higher engineering education in Europe. During these events, students can gain knowledge and share their opinions on the latest trends in the field of European Engi-neering Education (EEE).

There are two types of EoEs: BEST Symposium on Education, which gathers students and academic repre-sentatives and BEST Academics and Companies forum, that in addition to students and academics includes in-dustry representatives. During EoEs, participants exchange opinions and share experiences via discussions, workshops and case studies.

In summer 2013, three EoEs were or-ganised around the Europe and each of them tackled a different topic.

Next station, sustainable education, organised by BEST Madrid, was a fol-low-up event to an earlier symposium organised by BEST Vienna in 2012. The main goal of this event was to discuss the effect of EEE on Sustainable De-

velopment as well as catalysing ideas for projects that will be run by stu-dents of technology in the future.

Bringing education and entrepre-neurship under students scope, or-ganised by BEST Timisoara, dealt with the topics of virtual mobility and en-trepreneurship. The main objective of this event was to introduce students to the topic of virtual internships and gather input for PROVIP, one of BESTs partners.

EdYOUcation - Raise your hand, make a change, organised by BEST Aveiro, gathered both international and local students who approached the topic of accreditation and attrac-tiveness of EEE. At the event, among other stakeholders for EEE, Attract, a European project on engineering education, presented their ideas and gathered information on the topic of student retention in higher education.

In order to reach the desired out-comes, the atmosphere during an EoE tends to be more informal than in a lecturing hall which encourages stu-dents to speak their mind and share their opinions. It is of great impor-tance to us to establish a dialogue between our partners and find a solu-tion to common challenges.

IT IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO US TO ESTABLISH A DIALOGUE BETWEEN OUR

PARTNERS AND FIND A SOLUTION TO COMMON CHALLENGES.

INTERNALACTIVITIES

33

I N T E R N A L A C T I V I T I E S

FINANCIAL OVERVIEWBEST is a student organisation with strong ambitions and a wide range of activities. Therefore there is a need for an adequate budget to support the work and the development of the organisation.

We are constantly working on fulfill-ing our mission: developing students and towards reaching our vision of empowering diversity. In this sense, we provide career support to our stu-dents as one of our services. However, through career support, we also man-age to ensure our financial stability. In order to provide the adequate services to our students, we need to organise several internal and external events, and support a variety of projects, all of which cost money. This money is spend on ensuring the development of the organisation through: travel re-funds for BEST members, developing the training system, maintaining our IT systems, support for internal events and the organisation of statutory

meetings where important decisions about the future of the organisation are made.

Therefore, in order to manage the organisation and keep it sustainable, BEST is closely cooperating with in-dustrial partners, universities and Eu-ropean institutions. The most signifi-cant part of the income comes from Career Support Partners, followed by the contributions from the European Commission (under a 3 year Frame-work agreement, part of the Youth in Action programme of the European Union) and University Partners.

Considering the status of revenue and expenses, we can conclude that our organisation is in a stable finan-cial position. The status and details of the finances can be followed and checked by each member in the ac-counting tool available in our intranet. The detailed financial report of BEST for the 2013-2014 financial year is available on request.

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$REVENUES7%

9%

6%

5%

1%

31%

41%

FrameworkAgreement

Career SupportPartners

CorporatePartners

Supporters

UniversityPartners

ProjectPartners

Others

EXPENSES$7%

4%

4%

1%

2%

23%

31%

14%10%

1%

InternationalTeams

InternationalManagement

Internal Events Support

Administration

InternalTraining

Company Trips

MarketingMaterials

Educational EventsCoordination

CompetitionsCoordination

ExternalRelations

3%UnexpectedExpenses

35


BEST - A SUCCESS STORY FOR 25 YEARS. AN ORGANISATION INSPIRED BY CHANGE, YET ALWAYS DRIVEN BY THE SAME UNQUENCHED ELEMENT: BEST MEMBERS

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TRAINING SYSTEMBEST - a success story for 25 years. An organisation inspired by change, yet always driven by the same un-quenched element: BEST members.

These are unique individuals who strive to acquire and develop useful skills in order to be effective in the or-ganisation and later on in their future endeavours.

The body of BEST responsible for such development of skills is the Training Group. Being one of the six commit-tees of BEST, the Training Groups mission is to provide adequate coor-dination between the needs of Lo-cal BEST Groups for training and the trainers who are able to satisfy those needs and deliver the required ses-sions.The structure of Trainers Com-munity comprises two elements:

Trainers Community is represent-ed by an impressive number of more

than 400 trainers, who are also BEST members. The primary role of trainers is to deliver training. Apart from this, they continuously share knowledge and materials amongst each other, support, give feedback and advise to each other. This knowledge manage-ment guarantees that BEST trainers never stop their professional growth and continually improve themselves through cooperation.

Training Group members consist of 49 members of BEST who provide the coordination of training to BEST members in order to ensure they can contribute to the organisation in an effective way.

The Training Groups daily activities business revolves exclusively around BEST members, as its mission is to en-sure coordination of training in BEST.

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QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TRAININGSince the establishment of the Train-ing System in 1999, quality assurance has always been a hot topic. Over the years, a few methods have been established that assure the quality of training as a service to all BEST members on all levels. The following methods have proven the most suc-cessful and long lasting:

Train the Trainer MeetingsSecond level trainer education is an integral part of a trainers life cycle. These three to four days events are organised to prepare trainers for de-livering topics requiring more refined delivery techniques (e.g. communica-tion models with a deeper psycho-logical background).

Trainers Meetings on Trainer Camp - TRAP

The education of trainers starts at Trainer Camp, therefore the quality assurance process starts already at this level. In intervals of 3 to 5 event editions (between 1,5 to 2,5 years), the event is evaluated in all its as-pects during a gathering of compe-tent trainers (who either already de-livered training at the event or have relevant expertise). This ensures that the knowledge and methodology used and transmitted during this cru-cial event stays up to date.

Quality Content ProjectThis project evaluates the relevance and factual validity of knowledge that has been gathered throughout the years since the establishment of the Training System. The working meth-ods include literature research, shar-ing and live, as well as online meet-ings. The desired outcome is to have up-to-date and professionally correct content in our training material, thus ensuring that the knowledge deliv-ered to BEST members adheres to high quality standards.

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IT SYSTEMSBEST relies on relatively complex IT systems to support its activity. These range from our own mail servers to the application system, which help LBGs process the thousands of ap-plications received for seasonal cour-

ses. As a result of the efforts made by the organisation, BEST currently has strong internal communication and knowledge management tools that keep being further developed.

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Private AreaPrivate Area is the internal informa-tion system used by BEST. Its develop-ment dates back to the mid-nineties and it is the result of the unification of the IT platforms that supported the services of BEST. In essence, this system is the link between all the on-line tools of the organisation.

When it comes to documentation for knowledge management, Private Area contains the Document Archives and the Wiki. With these two tools, all the written knowledge of the organisa-tion is properly stored and available for the generations to come.

HR management is also an inher-ent part of the system. By using the HR tool and the Task Manager, BEST bodies can easily overview and up-date the progress and skills of their members, as well as assign appropri-ate tasks to them and keep track of the work progress.

Private Area has undergone many de-velopment and design phases culmi-nating with its current version. Its us-ability is constantly being improved, and new features and tools are sys-tematically planned, designed, imple-mented and launched.

Some highlights of this year are im-provements on data visualisation (with a more graphical approach), the redesign of the Task Manager tool and the design of Innovation Platform.

Innovation PlatformOne of the goals of this years man-date was improving the innovation process inside the organisation. As BEST has grown, it has become hard-er to keep track of and start working on plausible ideas due to the increase in the complexity of communication.

The newly planned Innovation Plat-form aims to tackle this issue. This tool has been defined to aid three areas of the innovation process: brainstorming and sharing, for presenting and devel-oping ideas; storing and browsing, in order not to lose ideas and keep track of previously discussed topics; and implemening these ideas.

This tool will take the shape of a forum, including the complex func-tionalities required to assist the in-novation process. The development started soon after the design was fi-nalised after IPF Lisbon.

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INTERNAL EVENTSOver the previous pages, we have been talking about the mission and vision of BEST. About how BESTs ac-tivities and services aim to develop students to empower diversity in the future. But how is all of this managed? The internal structure of BEST exists to manage and support every service that BEST provides to our stakehold-ers and internal events play a key role in this.

As an international organisation, much of our work is being done on-line, nevertheless, live events are an inherent part of the working culture of our organisation in order to func-tion properly. Internal events fulfil this need by providing the founda-tion for developing our projects and facilitating the discussion among the members of our organisation. Last year, 69 internal events contributed to the achievement of BESTs goals for the year.

Having one of the most developed internal training systems among stu-dent NGOs in the world represents not only a great asset for our organ-isation, but also a great example of what internal events are. BEST Train-Shops gather selected members of our local groups in a week-long in-ternal event during which they get trained on a specific topic related to their current and future responsibil-ities inside the organisation, such as leadership, fundraising, graphic de-sign, human resources management or marketing. Over the next few pag-es we will introduce other major in-ternal events needed for the proper

functioning of our organisation, such as General Meetings, which gather members from every local group of BEST or International Projects Forum, which is a clear example of BESTs working culture.

Presidents' Meeting BrnoBetween 7th and 13th of November, the 19th Presidents Meeting took place in Brno, Czech Republic. It was a chance for more than 160 students from all Local BEST Groups as well as partner NGOs of BEST to gather and to discuss about the development of our organisation.

From each Local BEST Group, one delegate had the chance to represent their group together with internation-al committee leaders and delegates, project coordinators, the International Board of BEST and representatives of our partner organisations. During this event, they attended several train-ing sessions, workshops, discussion groups and above all, four full days of plenary sessions.

Presidents Meeting Brno started with an Official Opening Ceremony, held at Brno University of Technology (BUT) on the 8th of November. Participants, together with 80 invited students from Brno University of Technology, listened to speeches delivered by Prof. Michal Kotoul, Vice-rector of BUT; Mi-chal Kotzian, PhD from the City Hall of Brno; Prof. Ladislav Muslek from SEFI; Mihai Tociu, President of the In-ternational Board of BEST and Libor Seda, the main organiser of the event.

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The Official Opening was a perfect place for interaction between stu-dents and our partners: SKODA AUTO, KTH, KIC InnoEnergy, Whirlpool, Vler-ick Gent Business School and Brno University of Technology. The day was concluded with training sessions on topics such as knowledge man-agement, strategic networking and communication and leadership all of which were delivered by skilled BEST trainers.

After Official Opening, four days of plenary sessions followed during

which international teams presented their ideas for developing our organisation and their working methods. Likewise, the delegates had a chance to express support and provide feed-back for international teams.

For Local BEST Group Brno, it was the biggest event they have ever organ-ised and a great honour to host such an important event in the decision making of BEST as well as a possibil-ity to present Czech culture and tra-dition.

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International Projects' Forum LisbonThe international scope of work in BEST is based on projects managed by international teams or the Board. Regardless of their nature or leader, this is how the on-going development in BEST is arranged; clustered in small chunks, each with their own goal, hu-man resources and usually a dead-line. Most importantly, sooner or later, some project will cross paths with others, influence them and cause a snowball effect that will push BEST forward.

Due to the geographical spread, col-laboration in projects is usually done through virtual communication chan-nels. Nevertheless, some projects re-quire in-person meetings of the team working on it. Once per year a very special event takes place to gather all of international BEST in one place to create a platform for them to discuss and work: the International Projects Forum (IPF).

During the last IPF which took place in February in Lisbon, Portugal, more than 70 participants, including Board members, committee members, re-gional advisors and project leaders met to work on high-priority issues that concerned the whole organi-sation. Important issues, such as the evaluation of the structure of BEST, Knowledge Management, Market Re-search, the Public Website and the BEST budget for 2014/15 were tackled during the 45 sessions that happened over the four days of the event.

From a planning and performance point of view, IPF is more than an im-portant milestone in the BEST calen-dar. It is the personification of BESTs vision and mission, where people from all corners of Europe meet to work voluntarily on developing stu-dents, share their passion and grow a better tomorrow for the engineering education world.

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General Assembly BucharestOver time great organisations grow and change is part of this process. BEST, falling into this category, is no different, much can change in any or-ganisation in 25 years. Even so, there is at least one thing that didnt change: the General Assembly of BEST. Every year, members of the local groups gather to discuss and vote the most important aspects of the organisa-tion. This year Bucharest, Romania had the chance to host this event and for one year, all of the members of BEST Bucharest worked hard to make this dream come true.

General Assembly of BEST 2014 star-ted with a Round Table where dele-gates from BEST and representatives from events partners prepared the Official Opening Day. Meanwhile, par-ticipants of BEST Career Day and del-egates from BEST arrived and went for a city tour. The very next day, ev-eryone put on their suits and attend-ed the Official Opening Day. When

this day ended, the delegates and or-ganisers headed off to Neptun, a city 250 km from Bucharest, for General Assembly working days, where the alumni were already waiting. After six days of hard work and plenary time, followed by social activities during the evening, the event ended and the time has come for another local group to take up the dream of organ-ising General Assembly of BEST.

To sum up the event, the numbers were:

250 70 60

60 7

DELEGATES ORGANISERSBEST CAREER DAYPARTICIPANTS

ALUMNI DAYS

ONE DREAM

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E X T E R N A L R E L A T I O N S

EXTERNALRELATIONS

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YOUTH IN ACTIONYouth in Action is a programme creat-ed by the European Union for the pe-riod 2007-2013, aimed at developing and supporting European cooperation in the field of youth. The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is entrusted with the implementation of the Youth in Ac-tion Programme.

As a European NGO exclusively ded-icated to youth, BEST activities have been recognised by EACEA as con-tributing to youth active citizenship, mobility of young people, their inter-cultural dialogue and mutual under-standing. For the period 2011-2013, BEST has put its focus on several key development areas during this three-year cooperation with EACEA under the Youth in Action Programme. Ev-ery year, the annual activity plan and budget were submitted for evaluation by EACEA.

In 2013, the final year of partner-ship with Youth in Action, BEST was granted with the maximum possible amount (50.000 ) to support the an-nual work programme for the period 2013-2014. The financial support from the European Commission covered planned operating expenses of BEST, mainly related to travel costs of the management, organisation of internal events, marketing and administrative expenses.

The renewal of the Framework Part-nership Agreement is a strong pillar for BEST, allowing the organisation to strengthen its internal structure and increase its impact among European students of technology. This partner-ship plays a major role in assisting BEST internally and in gaining recog-nition for BEST activities among its stakeholders.

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SEFIIt has been over 15 year that BEST and SEFI has been collaborating. Through-out these years, we have collaborat-ed on many various projects and this year wasnt any different.

Continuing the tradition that started in 2011 during the worlds first Engi-neering Education Flash Week in Lis-bon, Portugal, once again BEST and SEFI came together in organising SEFI Annual Conference: Engineering Ed-ucation Fast Forward 1973

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FEANIFEANI is a federation of professional engineers that unites national engi-neering associations from 32 Europe-an countries. Thus, it represents the interests of over 3.500.000 million professional engineers in Europe.

Through its activities and services, FEANI aims at facilitating the mutual recognition of engineering qualifica-tions in Europe and strengthening the position, role and responsibility of en-gineers in society.

The organisation is a founding mem-ber of the World Federation of Engi-neering Organisations (WFEO) and collaborates with many other organ-isations dealing with engineering and technology issues, as well as engi-neering education.

BEST and FEANI have been in contact since 2006 and have identified the need to increase the synergies be-tween present and future engineers thus creating a strong collaboration between our two organisations. During this 8-year-long cooperation, several joint workshops on topics concerning the mobility of engineering and the exchange of representatives at both of our organisations events have been organised.

During the last year, this partnership was strengthened with the transfer of BESTs headquarters to Brussels, Belgium; directly under FEANIs head-quarters. This years focus has been to identify potential joint projects which both organisations can address.

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PARTNER NGOSOver the course of its existence, BEST has developed strong bonds with sev-eral other major student and youth organisations. BEST fosters communi-cation and a mutual exchange of best practices with these partner NGOs, enabling us to increase our organisa-tional knowledge. In addition, a mu-tual exchange of members between our partners leads to new ideas and improvement.

BEST has five official partners: AEGEE (European Students Forum), bonding, CFES (Canadian Federation of Engi-neering Students), ELSA (European Law Students Association) and ESTI-EM (European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management).

This years emphasis was on devel-oping the partnerships we have and disseminating the opportunities they bring with them. This year that pro-cess resulted in over 110 cases of del-egates and participants being sent to each others events, which led to the sharing of a great deal of information and knowledge.

AEGEE is Europes largest interdisci-plinary student organisation. It pro-motes cooperation, communication and integration among young people in Europe. It consists of 13.000 mem-bers active in more than 200 univer-sities.

AEGEE has been a partner of BEST since 2010. Over the years, commu-nication on topics like the dissemi-nation of educational achievements, grants, and quality assurance has

been established. Additionally, a joint Youth in Action grant with AEGEE was submitted in September 2013 and was accepted, leading to a series of joint training events over the coming years.

bonding is a student association that bridges the gap between students and employers. They offer German students a broad range of projects aimed at increasing student insight into companies for their future career. bonding has over 350 members and local groups in 11 cities in Germany.

bonding has been a partner of BEST since 1997. As a result, the exchange of members between our organisa-tions is still strong: in the course of 2013-2014 over 70 participants were exchanged during various events. bonding has also been supportive of our new BEST groups in Germany: Aachen and Erlangen.

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CFES is a national bilingual organisation, representing approximately 60.000 engineering students across Canada. CFES aims at providing op-portunities for an all-encompassing education for engineering students in Canada to become unparalleled pro-fessionals in their field.

CFES has been a partner of BEST since 2000. This year, CFES organi-sation of the first International Engi-neering Competition (IEC) marked a milestone in our cooperation. BEST was able to send several participant teams and therefore was mostly re-sponsible for the participation of Eu-rope in the IEC.

ELSA is the worlds largest indepen-dent association for law students. ELSA offers law students a perfect platform to develop new and exist-ing skills, and network. It has a mem-bership of around 35.000 students,

spread around 300 universities in Eu-rope.

ELSA has been a partner of BEST since 2011. In previous years, BEST and ELSA mainly exchanged legal and technical advice, though now coop-eration revolves about sharing best practices on a variety of topics (such as organisational structure, alumni and grants).

ESTIEM is the organisation for Euro-pean Students of Industrial Engineer-ing and Management (IEM). Found-ed in 1990, ESTIEM was established in order to connect IEM students all over Europe and provide them with a unique platform to support them in their personal and professional de-velopment.

ESTIEM has been a partner of BEST since 2011. This year, our cooperation has strengthened significantly due to increased participant exchange on a variety of events. Contacts have been initiated on matters of educational in-volvement, marketing, alumni, compe-titions and knowledge management.

Seeking additional opportunities, BEST is also a member of IFISO (In-formal Forum of International Stu-dent Organisations): a platform of 21 international student organisations. It enables its members to easily collab-orate and strengthen their capacities.

The Ambassador of BEST is part of the management organising the next IFISO meeting in Utrecht, the Nether-lands.

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YOUTH FORUM JEUNESSEYFJ (Youth Forum Jeunesse) or com-monly known in English as the Eu-ropean Youth Forum, is an interna-tional organisation established by national youth councils and inter-national non-governmental youth organisations in Europe. It strives to be the voice of young people in Eu-rope, where young people are equal citizens and are encouraged and sup-ported to achieve their fullest poten-tial as global citizens. YFJ provides a support platform for its 99 member organisations and helps them devel-op and become more recognised. YFJ works closely with the Council of Eu-rope, European Union and United Na-tions.

Since April 2013, BEST has been an observer member of the Youth Forum and through this platform, BEST aims to become further engaged in Euro-pean matters such as youth employ-ment, mobility, non-formal education and much more. This year, BEST has been able to be present at the YFJ Council of Members which took place in the European Youth Capital of 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece and as well at the ERASMUS+ event in Brussels, Belgium. The opportunities of being involved are abounding, therefore ex-ploration are the next steps.

ROUND TABLEEvery year, BEST organises Round Ta-bles in order to meet with our current and potential partners in the technical field. Representatives from compa-nies, institutions, technical universities and business schools have opportuni-ty to get to know BEST more.

We present our services, activities and ongoing projects of our organisa-tion and hold discussions about how to bring companies and universities closer to talented, creative and inter-nationally-minded students of tech-nology from all over Europe. Another important goal of our Round Table is to talk about the needs and expecta-tions of our stakeholders, ask for their input to determine missing points in

our services and then work together on finding ways in which BEST can meet those expectations. This way, we are able to develop our Career Support service and provide a better value for our partners and students.

This year, we organised two Round Tables in different cities of Europe. The first one was held in Brno, Czech Republic before our Presidents Meet-ing in November and the most recent one took place in Bucharest, Romania before our BEST Career Day & Gener-al Assembly in April. Representatives from BRD - Groupe Societe Gener-ale, Deutsche Bahn, EIT ICT Labs, IE Business School, FEANI, KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Misys, P&G,

51


Skoda, UPM - Technical University of Madrid and Whirlpool were together with us during these events.

These events give us the opportuni-ty to discover new ways of improving the cooperation with our participant

stakeholders and set the premise for long-term and successful collabora-tions.

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PROMOTING VIRTUAL MOBILITY IN PLACEMENTSPromoting Virtual Mobility in Place-ments (PROVIP), is a project under the Lifelong Learning Programme where over ten partners from six different European countries work together to develop a new concept: virtual intern-ships.

The project, coordinated by KU Leu-ven, Belgium, is a follow-up to Enter-prise-University Virtual Placements (EU-VIP), which concluded in 2011. EU-VIP focused on virtual mobility in order to enhance the quality of inter-national work placements, and aimed to develop a framework which would allow the three stakeholders: stu-dents, companies and universities, to conduct a fruitful virtually supported internship.

The results of EU-VIP include guide-lines and training material for these stakeholders which were developed over a number of pilot projects organ-ised by business partners. Students also provided input which was gath-ered via two symposia that were or-ganised by BEST in cooperation with EU-VIP.

The same results helped to lay the foundation of PROVIP, which start-ed in October 2012 and will last un-til November 2014. The main goal of PROVIP is to disseminate the out-comes on virtual mobility from EU-VIP to numerous stakeholders, but in particular to companies as it is com-monly believed that virtual mobility has a low impact for industry.

For PROVIP, several pilot projects and

training events are taking place to raise corporate awareness. Moreover, an online platform has been devel-oped to provide stakeholders with the tools needed to arrange and manage virtual internships, including the pro-motion of internship offers, an appli-cation system, communication tools between the interns, companies and university and tools to gather feed-back.

BEST is contributing to all areas of the project coordinated by different partners. Our main role in the project is to provide students input via the organisation of two Events on Educa-tion. The first of these took place in July 2013 in Timisoara, Romania, un-der the the theme: Bringing education and entrepreneurship under students scope. The event gathered extensive input from students on their opinion of virtual internships and internships as a whole, in addition to evaluating and providing feedback to the online platform which has been developed to support virtual internships. Topics on entrepreneurship and its relation with virtual internships were also cov-ered, which presented new perspec-tives on the subject.

The second Event on Education, LINK: Lets Introduce the Network of Knowl-edge, will take place in Gdansk in July 2014. It will tackle the topics of virtual mobility and continue to explore its relationship with entrepreneurship.

From our cooperation with PROVIP, BEST gains insight into future work practices, provides students input for

53


the development of these projects and makes sure students needs are satisfied, while gaining knowledge on exciting and relevant issues such as virtual mobility. In this way, we are able to keep improving the outcomes of our events and present them not only to PROVIP, but also the other engineering associations, leading to

a better future for the students who will have more options when taking the decision of applying for an intern-ship.

We are hoping to continue with these fruitful collaborations and partner-ships which benefits all of our stake-holders.

INTEL BUSINESS CHALLENGEIntel Business Challenge Europe (IBC Europe) is part of Intel Global Chal-lenge, which gives business develop-ment opportunities to young entre-preneurs and start-ups with potential. The contest is supported by affiliate networks and business experts across Europe. Individuals and groups have the possibility to develop their busi-ness idea into operational start-ups and co-create on a European and global level.

BEST, by becoming part of the IBC Eu-rope affiliate network with the 2014 edition, supports activities under IBC Europe, as it is not only a competition,

but also a programme for the devel-opment of skills for young people. The role of BEST is to disseminate information about the competition to engineering students across Europe, as well as provide feedback on cer-tain parts of the competition. Involve-ment in IBC Europe gives us access to a broad network of institutions and industry representatives, as well as experts in the engineering and busi-ness fields. Furthermore, as IBC is a competition, we see cooperation as a learning opportunity for both sides to further develop our own competi-tions.

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WORLD ENGINEERING EDUCATION FORUMEven if BEST has its European bound-aries, external relations do not know the definition of borders.

The International Federation of En-gineering Education Societies (IFEES) is an umbrella organisation that aims to establish effective engineering education processes of high quali-ty around the world and to assure a global supply of well-prepared engi-neering graduates for the engineering field.

In September 2013, BEST had the op-portunity to attend a distinguished

event organised by IFFES, the World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) in Cartagena, Columbia. The topic of the event was innovation in Engineer-ing Education as there is a general need to search for innovated solu-tions in order to help optimise pro-cesses and services in the field of En-gineering Education.

After the successful involvement in WEEF, BEST is currently discussing its involvement in the 2014 and 2015 edi-tions which will take place in Dubai, UAE and Florence, Italy, respectively.

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INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETITIONThe International Engineering Com-petition (IEC) is an event organised by the Canadian Federation of Engineer-ing Students (CFES) of which BEST was a partner, along with several oth-er international partners. It seeks to gather participants from all over the world to compete in the categories: Design competition and Consulting competition. As in other competitions, creativity and good teamwork are im-portant factors to win, and students learn by solving novel problems to-gether in an innovative way.

In September 2013, the first ever edi-tion of IEC was organised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It brought togeth-er students from Canada, the United States, and Europe, resulting in a total of 16 teams. Shell was the exclusive sponsor of the competition, therefore its official name was the Shell Inter-national Engineering Competition.

While the IEC is not officially linked to any part of the EBEC pyramid, none-theless several teams composed of BESTies and EBEC participants trav-elled to Canada in order to compete, and as such BEST was responsible for a large part of the European teams in the event. One of these teams would even go on to win the Design compe-tition!

IEC is the main intercontinental proj-ect that BEST is engaged in, and as such its organisation (and the col-laboration with CFES) forms one of BESTs most important projects. Both CFES and BEST have already started the preparation of the next IEC edi-tion, currently scheduled for Septem-ber 2015.

More information about the 2013 competition is available on: www.iec.cfes.ca.

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p u b l i c R E L A T I O N S

PUBLICRELATIONS

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BEST, as an organisation growing day by day, recognises the value of build-ing a strong external image among its stakeholders in order to assure that all of the services produced by BEST members are well-understood and appreciated by the public. To this end, the Public Relations Project strives to monitor, assess and reinforce the public image of BEST through the use of social media channels, media appearances and collaboration with Local BEST Groups. Since 2009, this project has ensured that BEST re-mains a well-known brand providing high quality services to European stu-dents of technology.

Promotion of BEST services is a key element for the public relations prac-tices of BEST as they hold an impor-tance in strengthening the public im-age of BEST. Therefore, BEST courses, European BEST Engineering Compe-tition, career-related and educational

opportunities, together with internal events such as Regional Meetings, General Meetings and Training Events are promoted through social media channels and media coverage.

As a result of a careful planning, of-ficial social media accounts of BEST have been gaining the attention of a great number of students, companies and educational institutions. To illus-trate, the official Facebook account of BEST increased the number of its fans by 47% in less than a year and reached 11.407. Similarly, the official Twitter account of BEST augmented the number of its followers remark-ably and reached 1.100. In parallel, the official LinkedIn account of BEST saw the number of 2.702 with an increase of 63%.

Media coverage is also an integral component of establishing a strong relationship with the stakeholders of BEST. Thus, a notable amount of

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media companies were contacted for possible media partnerships. The biggest and most prestigious events of BEST, namely General Assembly, BEST Career Day, Presidents Meet-ing and European BEST Engineering Competition, were publicised through a notable number of different me-dia channels. Young Petro, an inter-national student magazine focused on the petroleum industry, was also

involved in this process by being the media partner for General Assembly Bucharest 2014 and European BEST Engineering Competition Final Round 2014.

The Public Relations Project is de-termined to continue its high-quality and dedicated work in the following years to make sure that BEST is in its rightful place among its stakeholders.

7.759

303843413.731

5258

11.407

FACEBOOK STATISTICS

SEASONEVENTS

2013 2014

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LBG Aalborg Daniel Hillerstrm Aalborg University, Aalborg Universitet

LBG Almada Tiago Cardoso New University of Lisbon

LBG Ankara Ahmet Mert Ozcelik Middle East Technical University (Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi)

LBG Athens Myriam Sarantea National Technical University of Athens (Ethnico Metsovio Polytechnio)

LBG Aveiro Ctia Alves University of Aveiro

LBG Barcelona Albert Poti Jove Technical University of Catalonia

LBG Belgrade Daniel Mijailovic University of Belgrade

LBG Brasov Adrian Marcean Transilvania University of Brasov

LBG Bratislava Matej upka Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava

LBG Brno Jan Maz Brno University of Technology

LBG Brussels Laurens Raes Free University of Brussels (VUB)

LBG Brussels ULB Flavius Ivan University of Brussels (ULB)

LBG Bucharest Andrei Frincu Politehnica University of Bucharest

LBG Budapest Kristf Andrzej Baran Budapest University of Technology and Economics

LBG Chania Aggeliki Marini Technical University of Crete (T.U.C.) (Polytehnio Kritis)

LBG Chisinau Dorin Russu Technical University of Moldova

LBG Cluj-Napoca Andrei Popa Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

LBG Coimbra Cristina Bento University of Coimbra

LBG Copenhagen Thomas Bruun Bertelsen Technical University of Denmark, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

LBG Delft Sebastian France Delft University of Technology

LBG Eindhoven Nawshad Chowdhury Eindhoven University of Technology

LBG Ekaterinburg Elvira Yakupova Urals State University of Railway Transport

LBG Ekaterinburg UrFU Ksenia Burlakova Ural Federal University

LBG ENSAM Antoine Van Der Borght Arts et Mtiers ParisTech

LBG ENSTA ParisTech Grgoire Varillon ENSTA ParisTech

LBG Faro Algarve Artem Yultyyev University of Algarve

LBG Gdansk Maciej Kopania Gdansk University of Technology

LBG Ghent Eline De Buyser Ghent University

LBG Gliwice Mateusz Ryba Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice

LBG Gothenburg Mats Lindstrom Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers Tekniska Hgskola

LBG Graz Philipp Miedl Graz University of Technology

LBG Grenoble Sylvain Bouvet Grenoble Institute of Technology

LBG Helsinki Timo Salo Aalto University, Aalto-yliopisto

LBG Iasi Mariana Doroftei "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi

LBG Istanbul Mertcan ztrk Istanbul Technical University (Istanbul Teknik niversitesi)

LBG Istanbul Yildiz Tunc Sahin Yildiz Technical University

LBG Izmir Veysel Anil Gunay Ege University (Ege niversitesi), Izmir, Turkey

LOCALBESTGROUPS

UNIVERSITIES & PRESIDENTS

61

LBG Kaunas Justinas Maonas Kaunas University of Technology

LBG Kiev Marina Shalko National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute"

LBG Kosice Marcela Markoviov Technical University of Kosice

LBG Krakow Michal Kulbat AGH-UST - University of Science and Technology

LBG Las Palmas Maria Ramos Las Palmas of Gran Canaria University

LBG Leuven Laurens De Smedt Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)

LBG Liege Anthony Marchand University of Lige

LBG Lisbon Ana Rita Medeiros University of Lisbon

LBG Ljubljana Tanja Abramovic University of Ljubljana

LBG Lodz Marta Wadowska Lodz University of Technology

LBG Louvain-la-Neuve Louise Nol Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)

LBG Lund Ellen Persson Lund University, Faculty of Engineering, Lunds Tekniska Hgskola

LBG Lviv Oleh Kozak Lviv Polytechnic National University

LBG Lyon Rmi Chateau INSA Lyon

LBG Madrid Pedro Garcia Chas Technical University of Madrid

LBG Madrid Carlos III Irene Romero Carlos III University of Madrid

LBG Maribor Katja u University of Maribor

LBG Messina Giuseppe Sgr University of Messina

LBG Milan Michele Damato Politecnico di Milano

LBG Moscow Pavel Sukhov Bauman Moscow State Technical University

LBG Mostar Nermina Baljic University "Dzemal Bijedic" of Mostar

LBG Nancy Adrien Carpinteiro University of Lorraine

LBG Naples Mario Salomone University of Naples "Federico II

LBG Nis Pavle Djordjevic University of Nis (Univerzitet u Nisu)

LBG Novi Sad Marko Vasiljevic University of Novi Sad

LBG Paris Ecole Centrale Aiman Sokhal Centrale Paris

LBG Paris Polytechnique Boris Azimi Ecole Polytechnique

LBG Patras Anastasios Alexopoulos University of Patras (Panepistimio Patron), Patras, Greece

LBG Porto Felipe Afonso Vieira University of Porto

LBG Prague Adam Uhl Czech Technical University in Prague

LBG Reykjavik Daniel Eldjarn Vilhjalmsson University of Iceland, Hskli slands

LBG Riga Zane Feldmane Riga Technical University

LBG Rome Tatiana Quercia Sapienza University of Rome

LBG Rome Tor Vergata Daniele Rossini University of Rome Tor Vergata

LBG Saint Petersburg Olga Osipenko Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University

LBG Skopje Vesna Markovska University Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Univerzitet Sveti Kiril i Metodij)

LBG Sofia Dimitar Dimitrov Technical University of Sofia

LBG Stockholm Riccardo Borgani Royal Institute of Technology, Kungliga Tekniska Hgskolan (KTH)

LBG Supelec Adam Smiarowski Suplec (Ecole Suprieure d'Electricit (Suplec))

LBG Tallinn Andres Ruul Tallinn University of Technology

LBG Tampere Emil Hagstrom Tampere University of Technology

LBG Thessaloniki Olga Vrousgou Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

LBG Timisoara Paul Finta Politehnica University of Timisoara

LBG Trondheim Franz LaZerte Norwegian University of Science and Technology

LBG Turin Davide Modesti Politechnic of Turin

LBG Uppsala Nemer Achour Uppsala University, Uppsala Universitet

LBG Valladolid lvaro Gutirrez Gonzlez University of Valladolid

LBG Veszprem Fut Dniel University of Pannonia

LBG Vienna Bernhard Stecher Vienna University of Technology

LBG Vinnytsia Inna Melnyk Vinnytsia National Technical University

LBG Warsaw Pawel Kociuba Warsaw University of Technology

LBG Wroclaw Marcin Majczyk Wroclaw University of Technology

LBG Zagreb Vitka Gres University of Zagreb

LBG Zaporizhzhya Sasha Kravtsova Zaporizhzhya National Technical University

PARTNERS OFBEST

63

SUPPORTERS

EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSPRO VIP

UNIVERSITY AND INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS

CAREER SUPPORT PARTNERS

PARTNER NGOS

European Students Forum

With the support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union

With the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

WHAT IS BESTSTRUCTURE OF BESTINTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF BEST PROFILE OF BEST MEMBERSMEMBERS AND STATISTICSRELATIONSHIPS WITH ALUMNIGROWTH OF BESTBEST ANNIVERSARY PROJECTKNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTMARKET RESEARCHMARKETING STRATEGIES OF BESTPUBLIC WEBSITEBEST COURSESEBEC PROJECTBEST CAREER SUPPORTBEST CAREER DAYBEST CAREER CENTEREDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENTEVENTS ON EDUCATIONABOUTBEST 143294335030802362 THIGHLIGHTSOF THEYEARINTERNALACTIVITIESEXTERNALRELATIONSPUBLICRELATIONS

best annual report 2013-2014

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