• Contact
• Mission & Vision
• History
• Accreditations & Certificates
• Network & Partners
• Organisation
• Central Organisation
• Academy
• Research Laboratory
• Development Department
• Via Vinci Surinam

About Via Vinci > Organisation > Central Organisation > Academy

Organization ‘Academy’

Activities
Via Vinci’s courses, master-classes and conferences are globally led by the Academic Director. The ‘Academy’ is the business school of Via Vinci. It carries out training on four levels:
- Bachelor (acquires BA title)
- Post-educational (only in The Netherlands, acquires post-educational register diploma)
- Master (acquires MA and MBA title)
- Doctor (acquires DBA and PhD title).
These doctorate courses from an organizational point of view come under the department ‘Research Laboratory’.

Major fields of study
Via Vinci’s courses are classified into ‘major fields of study’. The number of these major fields is growing. Some of them are running already while otthers will start off soon:

- Education (running since 2000)
- Business Development (running since 2004)
- Cleantech (starts mid-2008)
- Health Care (starts mid-2008)
- Human Resources (starts mid-2008).
Besides, a number of other major fields are being prepared. On our website and in our Circular we will inform you of these new developments.

Specialist teams
The quality and current interest of our program contents is warranted by specialist teams. For every major field there is one specialist team, at least consisting of a chairman and one specialized professor (who is the chair-holder). The chairman is the contact person for the Academic Director, module developers and tutors.
The chairman of a specialist team controls the tutors and supervisors as to the substance of their teaching. Tutors may only work for Via Vinci when they have evident teaching skills and so long as student and management satisfaction is high.
The professor/chair-holder supervises the quality of the curriculum. The specialist team may further consist of other professors, instructors, researchers, supervisors and practical experts that offer a clear surplus value for the training in a given major field.

Students and participants
Every signed-up individual in one of the courses is a ‘student’; persons not aiming at a diploma but nonetheless taking part in one of more of Via Vinci’s activities, are called ‘participants’. The central office keeps a file of every student and participant, which is saved according to legal regulations. Part of this file is included in the student’s portfolio on the intranet, which can be accessed by the students and their respective tutors and supervisors.

Learning teams
For the sake of contact learning student groups are formed, which are called ‘learning teams’. In every country at least one location will offer this service. In The Netherlands learning teams will also be attended to at side-locations (the branches of our sister-organization IMAGO Group, not only in Breda but also in Almere, Goes and Zwolle) or in-company on the client’s premises.
Besides its module tutors, each learning team will be assigned one central tutor, who is the supervisor of studies of the learning team.
In case the number of students is very small, by mutual agreement with the student we may decide to offer certain module contents in the form of tutor-learning.

Intranet
In addition to contact modules, group consultation and personal coaching sessions, Via Vinci gives its training within a web-based infrastructure: the intranet.
This is our ‘virtual academy’ that creates an opportunity for students and tutors to meet virtually, to study by additional e-learning modules and to communicate on study matters and organization. The intranet is a bilingual environment (English and Dutch) where students, tutors and partners participate globally. It is not only additional as to personal contacts, but generates also a digital shell around the physical organization.

In-company academy
Via Vinci supports various organizations in putting up and carrying out ‘their own academy’, where courses and training are specifically geared to the targets and culture of the organization. On request we will provide recommendations from various such academies we carry or carried out in the educational sector and business.
Sometimes these trainings even amount to diploma courses and - in collaboration between Via Vinci and the organization concerned - an organizational unit is set up, that bears all the hallmarks of an educational institute. As an example we mention Fundare Pedagogische Academie (Fundare Teacher Training).