Basic set-up of the course

The venue

A small hotel in Sitges – a town next to the sea, south of Barcelona, Spain. Easy to reach by train. And of course Barcelona has a well-served airport.

 

Dates

Five working days (plus one day each for arrival and departure) in early December. The weather is still fairly good at that time of year and the timing is also good for the next YOUTH project submission deadline in February. The team arrived one day earlier to complete their final preparations – they had met in September for a weekend planning meeting in the hotel.

Participants

Youth workers interested in planning their first youth exchange. They should be supported by their organisation and able to communicate in English.

 

Applicants applied to their National Agency and a joint committee made a selection from the 52 applicants.  A minimum of two participants were chosen from each country so that they would be able to support each other after the course.

 

Two participants had to cancel at the last minute because they were ill with flu, which left 23 participants from 9 countries: 15 female, 8 male.

The team

Four experienced trainers were chosen to make up the team: Anna from Poland, Sonja from Slovenia, Olaf from Sweden and José from Spain. Coming from the host country, José had a special role in coordinating the team and the course. Briana – a youth researcher from Ireland – was appointed to join the team to assist in devising and implementing the evaluation strategy. Some members of José's organisation took it in turns to help out with technical arrangements, meaning that he could devote more time to the content of the course.