TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Milena (Lazic) Nikolic
Training course aimed to:
-Raise awareness among young people about the importance and influence of culture on person’s behaviour and identity;
-Empower and train youth workers how to deal with cultural diversity;
-Support youth workers to use cultural diversity as a tool to discover identity;
-Encourage youth workers to work with concrete aspects of cultural diversity and integration of it in youth work, meaning developing tools, activities, strategies for improvement of youth work on local level;
-Foster future international projects and collaborations.
27 youth workers and leaders coming from Slovenia, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Cyprus, Poland.
Team of Trainers
Rodrigo Vilarinho Sweden/Portugal
Saro Rossi Italy
Milena Lazic Serbia
The methodology used is specific to non‐formal education and learning, both individual and group methods, taking into consideration participants’ learning needs with a creative approach. In addition the training course is highly practically oriented. Therefore, specific feature was that first part of it consisted of three parallel working groups working on the same topic (Culture, Identity and Intercultural learning) by using different educational tools and approached according to trainers’ competences and background. Participants were able to benefit from all 3 groups thanks to a common session at the end of each working day, where all the tools were shared, evaluated and discussed by learners. Furthermore, participants were working in international teams to develop and implement with the rest of the group an educational tool / activity on the topic of Intercultural learning using the knowledge of previous days. Last day of the training course provided space for developing project ideas and opening space for future cooperation.
Participants had:
-Developed and implemented 5 different educational tools on the topic of intercultural learning;
-Created 5 different project ideas (mainly youth exchanges and youth initiatives);
-Gained knowledge and competence in key concepts of intercultural learning;
-Acknowledged the importance that influence of culture has on person’s perception of reality, everyday behaviour and identity;
-Been introduced with the approaches to intercultural learning and possibilities to adapt it to their local contexts;
-Reflected about the importance of cultural diversity when organizing international youth projects;
-Been provided with information about existing possibilities and conditions for the development European youth co-operation projects, with special focus on the Youth in Action Programme;
-Exchanged best practices and developed an informal network of youth workers.
I had a role of a trainer, meaning that I was responsible for one of the 3 working groups as well as whole design, implementation and evaluation of the training program. The training program was reviewed and evaluated every day and adjusted according to the learning needs of participants.