LEARNING BY PLAYING

LEARNING BY PLAYING is a Training Course which gathers 25 participants in Hostalets de
Pierola, Catalonia, during 7 days held in October, from 3 to 9 (including travel days).
Learning by playing is designed from the need of local youth groups of scouts, and
international partners to develop their competences in creating games that are fun and
educational at the same time. To tackle the creativity burnout that some youth workers
experience, we want to provide space and context for participants to learn how to design new
effective games that lead to a deep reflection process. The focus will be on inclusion.
Our project aims to improve the competences linked to the professional profile of youth
workers by providing innovative tools for designing better educational games. This goal will
promote a better quality of their work and activities in favor of students, trainees, young
people and volunteers. Moreover, by fighting the creativity burn-out of youth workers, we
increase motivation and satisfaction in their daily work. We believe that by equipping youth
workers with competences and methods of “Learning by playing”, we transfer strong positive
values to the hard to reach young people and thus prevent violent radicalisation.
The aim of the project is to give youth workers & youth leaders tools, frameworks and space to
create and practice educational games that address current social topics.
Our objectives are:
 Discuss important social topics that influence youth in the country partners of the
project;
 Give participants tools for mapping and identifying learning needs of their target
group;
 Discuss the topic of games as an educational tool;
 Give participants tools for a creative approach of the topic of youth work;
 Share a framework for creating educational and experiential games;
 Create a set of educational games on social topics in the frame of non-formal learning;
 Create a game compilation booklet as on-line resource to share amongst other youth
workers;
 Empower youth workers/youth leaders to take creative action with young people.
The working methods used are from a non-formal education approach and include input
sessions, experience-exchange sessions, reflection-groups, team-building sessions, open space
technology, discussions, roleplays, simulation exercises and work with cases, among others.
They will provide an effective group communication and will allow all participants to fulfill
their expectations and needs through a progressive and valuable inter-cultural learning
experience.
The results created include the dissemination of the educational games focused on fostering
inclusion developed and tested in the training, articles and posts sharing participants’
experience and learning outcomes as well as a video compilation of the training.