The first training course on European Citizenship

Aims & objectives

The aim of this pilot course was to support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders by extending their competencies to integrate European citizenship within their projects and practice.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Rui Gomes (CoE), Andreas Karsten (Germany), Erzsébet Kovács (Hungary), Margareta Matache (Romania), Denis Morel (France), Lászlo Földi (Hungary)

Training methods used & main activities

The course was based on the principles and practise of non-formal education in youth worker and youth leader training, as they have been developed and implemented at the European Youth Centres as well as in other training contexts. In conjunction with the topic of the course – European citizenship –this determined that the learning process would:
- be based on the intrinsic motivation of the learner;
- generally not imply the control of individual learning achievement;
- be learner-centred and based on the experiences of participants;
- be based on a personal responsibility for learning, supported by a strong group dimension and a collective approach;
- enable participants to apply and transfer what they learned to their youth work practise;
- take into account the needs and motivations of participants and be open to regular feed-back and evaluations;
- be thoroughly evaluated and documented to gain a maximum multiplying effect after this pilot
phase.

Outcomes of the activity

Taking all of the results of the course and the earlier identified outcomes into account it became evident that youth work on European Citizenship is a very challenging and demanding field of work in the European continent. For youth workers to provide young people with appropriate, satisfying and creative opportunities to participate as active citizens in their European context and environment, it is needed to have a large set of competencies in a wide range of issues. Youth workers should have extended competencies in understanding and working with citizenship, Europe, youth, intercultural learning, multicultural
society, European institutions, funding programmes and project planning.
During this training course all of these topics were addressed and participants recognised and
acknowledged how closely they are intertwined and connected. Many answers were generated and provided from within the group of participants, but even more new
questions were created and raised. And this is maybe one of the most important features of European citizenship: to continuously raise critical and reflective questions, because with every answer or solution, new questions and problems come to the foreground. That keeps our work exciting, that keeps our work challenging and that makes our work rewarding.
If youth workers stop wondering, stop questioning, stop approaching the uncertain, stop reflecting and stop learning, then how can we expect from young people all across this diverse and hybrid continent to engage with the cultures, structures and people around them who live and celebrate (in) Europe? This training course was one of the the foundations of the later Citizenship Training Modules.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was an invited member of the team, working as a trainer throughout the whole course. This was my first challenging international training activity after some study sessions and national training courses.

I worked on this training for 10 days as a full time trainer.