TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Maria Larisa Giangkambozidou
The project aimed to gather youth workers from Europe and create a multicultural environment of learning through experience. Learning took place in various dimensions and fostered the personal and professional development of youth workers competencies. Firstly, the intercultural aspect brought different ideas and facets to trigger the enlightenment through peer to peer interaction. Therefore, the project gave participants the chance to engage in different types of simulations and study cases so they can practice their skills on the spot. On a more holistic approach, the needs this project attempted was to respond to self exploration and self esteem, active listening and prioritizing, communicating efficiently on teamwork, being in the present moment and inner leadership. The inner evolution human mankind is encountering aspires the motivation for this project to dissolve any issues of insecurity, ambiguity and uncertainty. This project was the inner stimulus for youth workers to regain their confidence through empowerment, internal exploration and active experiential learning. And with those skills acquired they were able to work with the young people in their associations and practice the skills and methods into focus groups.
Objectives:
To improve the international competences of participants by working in an international context and environment;
Support learners in the investment of skills and competences with a view to improving their personal development, their involvement as considerate and active citizens in society and their employability in the European labor market and beyond;
Strengthen the links between youth field and labor market through the youth workers capacities;
Enhance the international dimension of youth activities and the capacity of youth workers and organizations;
Promote non-formal learning and cooperation in the field of youth between youth workers from Europe;
Build a community of trust and a space for sharing good practises for more quality and engagement in youth work;
Foster the mutual understanding of soft skills and give the chance to participants to experience and access a course for their personal and professional development.
The training course was funded by European Commission through Erasmus+ programme for youth and the applicant partner was Greece. The partners that consisted the project were: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Latvia.
The participants were:
between 18-35 years old;
youth workers active in youth work and connected with young people;
educators and teachers;
willing to broaden their perspective on their european citizenship;
youth workers from rural areas;
youth workers, leaders and educators with limited access to educational resources;
Able to communicate in English at a moderate level
The project was based on non formal learning methods. More specifically the activities took place in smaller groups, in bigger groups as well as in pairs. The location was nature or in the circle and we focused a lot on experiential learning through some case studies, simulations and reflection methods to understand what they have learned using various reflection methods and interacting with others from different countries. They also learned the self reflection through the Youthpass certification.
Through this project we emphasised the importance of personal development and confidence building in order to create a solid personality with valuable skills to help and support young people. Sustainability and adaptability are two aspects correlated to the impact our project aspired to have on the participants. Throughout the whole project and more specifically and intensively in the Activity they indulged themselves in new environments and settings and they learned by doing. And this is an asset they took with them and transfer to young people of their community. We created a community of continuous learning and expansion of skills.
Youth workers:
-Improved their teamwork and group dynamic skills as well as their transversal skills and their impact through lifelong learning;
-Developed time and conflict management to transfer into their working space;
-Increased the level of knowledge in prioritisation and planning;
-Explored different ways of learning, integrate in a new multidimensional environment;
-Were able to disagree and debate in a nonviolent way, approach effective solution-focused thinking patterns;
-Learned to apply soft skills in a working environment and make their hard skills survive in the long run;
-Integrated into empathy and compassion and learn their value;
-Improved the ability to express self in foreign language and the skill to communicate their ideas;
-Developed self confidence, improved behavioural, cultural, technical, contextual skills through activities;
-Gained acquaintance of reflection methods and key competences referred to the Youthpass Certificate from ETS model;
-Empowered the partnerships with organisations from different countries working with young people and their development.
My task was to first design the content and the training agenda, create the learning cycle for participants. Also to facilitate all the activities and supported participants in their learning process. I was also responsible for the reflection methods they used and all the resources that was used to share and promote to participants.
We used padlet to put all our resources: https://padlet.com/tcsoftmate/softmate-training-course-greece-21-28-may-2024-q3tajv792twaa9o5
The project gave me new perspectives on communication, and also on how our emotions can influence the whole reality that surrounds us. Through well thought and greatly executed activities, Maria gave us a big opportunity to learn more about how to not only communicate better, but also how to convey our emotions to others around us in a way that fosters understanding, active listening and cooperation. One of the best projects I've ever attended!