Motivation for developing the course

Research by the members of the project consortium Employers’

Confederation of Latvia and Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry indicated the need for further education courses in the field of
finance and managerial decision making.

Innovative content of the course

The course has been developed to include the following innovative

content:  Key concepts of financial markets, which are explained from
an applied perspective, including with examples and problems from
current financial markets practices from EU integration and
development perspective;  Analytical techniques to be applied in
financial markets provide with understanding and tools to decision
makers in the firm;  Applied exercises, which cover topics such as
money market, debt market, equity market instruments, as well as
decision making rules in the financial markets;  Summaries are
provided at the end of every chapter, which aid revision and control of
knowledge acquisition during self-study;

Innovative teaching methods of the course

The course is developed to utilise the following innovative teaching

methods:  Availability on the electronic platform with interactive
learning and interactive evaluation methods;  Active use of case
studies and participant centred learning;  Availability in modular form;
 Utilising two forms of learning - self-study and tutorial consultations;
 Availability in several languages simultaneously.

Target audience for the course

The target audience are: entrepreneurs, finance and management

specialists from Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria and, in the longer term,
similar groups in any other European country. The course assumes little
prior applied knowledge in the area of financial and operation analysis.
The course is intended for 32 academic hours (2 credit points).