To learn from different people is very enriching

Carolina Pinzón Faccini, Colombia, student at Trade Academy

What is the best thing about Trade Academy?

The best thing about Trade Academy is that you get to know people from many different countries and many different realities. That’s really important because you get to understand how different countries operate. Sometimes you feel that your country maybe isn't always going in the right direction, but when you understand the realities of the other countries, you see the things that are going well in your country. To learn from different people working in different areas is very enriching.

I came out with a different point of view and with an open mind and an open vision.

What are your personal gains from Trade Academy?

When making decisions and performing analysis, it is very important to get different points of view. When you are on the other side, you get to understand things that you didn’t realize at first. This is one of the things I really enjoyed the most.

I learned about many topics. I really liked the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). I thought it was like rocket science, but now when we did all these very practical exercises, I understand this is not that difficult and that it’s so practical. It’s like a road map: now I know what to do from the beginning, and how to identify the next steps, as well as the questions I have to ask. It is so systematic and necessary, but not very difficult.

Now I understand how difficult – but very good – it is to have different perspectives. The role-playing game was very real, and it was amazing to see how you, in the position of defending one of the arguments, could understand the many visions that exist while making a decision. The understanding that to make a single decision you need to understand many points of view is important for everyone in their everyday life. It was an eye-opener because sometimes you just focus on one thing and you forget about how many people and many situations that are also involved in one decision. So now, when I have a situation to resolve, I really have to understand all the pros and all the cons of all the people involved and how my decision would affect them. It’s very good because having the overview of each problem and each decision makes the decision itself stronger.