Bridges for Training 2001 - Conference Report

Aims of the tool

Get inspired by this European trainer & training meeting, methods, updates on youth & training policy and new initiatives.

Description of the tool

Over the last years there has been a significant increase in the offer of different Training Courses for Youth Workers in Europe. The European Commission elaborated a Strategy for Training, the Council of Europe diversified their training offer, the Partnership for Training and Youth between these two European Institutions saw the light, the National Agencies and SALTO respond to the training needs and priorities within the YOUTH programme and NGOs are active as ever.

At the same time we see that Non-Formal Education is more and more finding its way onto the political agenda(s). For example the White Paper on Youth, presented during the Belgian Presidency, presents non-formal education as an important tool to promote participation and citizenship, autonomy and employment, when certain quality standards are met and recognised.

This is the moment where there is a good-will to combine all the single efforts existing in different contexts because the whole is more than the sum of its individual parts. Bridges for Training pioneered in this sense in bringing people together from different backgrounds but working in the same field: Training and Youth. It gathered both European trainers and training organisers, it cut across the Council of Europe and European Commission division, both European Institutions but also NGOs were present, from the European level as well as from the national level.

Bridges for Training built bridges between these different actors in the field of youth and training. It was a welcome opportunity to get to know each other (better) and to establish new co-operation initiatives. The programme provided an update on the latest training initiatives going on in the European youth field. But it also provided a space for presenting and experimenting with different innovative training methods and discuss some key issues in European youth work and non-formal education. Last but not least Bridges forTraining stressed the importance and benefits of non-formal education in today’s society.

The first “Bridges for Training” have been constructed, now it is up to you to cross them !