Course Description

The University of Latvia invites bachelor’s and master’s students to join the course "Total Quality Management Systems" at the FORTHEM Digital Academy!

Management and entrepreneurship are much more than isolated theories - they explain how organisations operate, coordinate people, improve processes, make strategic choices, and respond to changing environments. They shape how companies grow and remain competitive.

This course introduces the fundamental principles of management and entrepreneurship, covering key topics:

• management functions,

• organisational systems,

• entrepreneurship basics,

• process management,

• human resource management,

• motivation theories,

• organisational effectiveness, strategic analysis

• business model design.

Through lectures, guest sessions and a mini‑project, students learn to recognise organisational problems, analyse business environments and apply basic management tools to support better decision‑making.

Guiding you through the course is Svetlana Kočerova:
Svetlana combines business leadership, practical experience and academic research. She is Head of the Latvian Branch of DNB Bank ASA, Chair of the Board of the Norwegian Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, and Lecturer at the University of Latvia.
With more than a decade of experience in banking and business operations, Svetlana has worked with Lean implementation, continuous improvement, service transitions, operational efficiency, and organisational development. She is a certified Lean Black Belt and has led improvement initiatives and Lean training in an international business environment.
Her academic and research interests include Lean and efficiency improvement in service organisations, quality and process management, artificial intelligence in process improvement, human factors and workplace performance.

Lecture Schedule: The first live online lecture will take place on 21 October 2026. The course will proceed with one lecture per week on Wednesdays 16:30-20:00 CET / 17:30-21:00 EET, accompanied by independent self‑study in accordance with the learning plan. The final live online session is scheduled for 9 December and will be dedicated to the mini-project examination presentations.

Additional information:

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Latvia offers this course. It is available to bachelor’s and master’s students in Economics, Management, Business Administration, Finance, Public Administration, Sociology, and Social Policy.

This 3 ECTS synchronous course will be delivered entirely online (materials available in the FORTHEM Digital Academy and live sessions in Teams).

Assessment:

• Self‑study tasks aligned with the weekly learning plan

• Final examination presentation during the last live session: Mini‑project presentation

Note: Only students who have pre-registered till the 4 October 2026 may participate in the course.