APPETISER - An introduction to international youth work

Target group
Appetiser aims at youth leaders and youth workers working actively at the local and/or national level willing to take their activities international. Appetiser is mainly addressed to newcomers, who do not have yet international youth work experience. It is preferred, but not necessary, that participants should come from an organisation that is newcomer to European mobility programmes. It can also be possible that an organisation, which is already implementing international activities, can send a representative who does not have yet international youth work experience. Thus, important criteria for participation to this training course are:
● Participants should have some experience in developing youth activities in local/national level;
● Participants should not have participated in other network trainings and/or in multiple international youth activities;
● Participants should be motivated and consider to broaden their organisation‘s activities into international context;
● Participants have to be able to communicate in English and be at least 18 years old.
Aims and objectives
To give a strong positive fi rst experience of international youth work and motivate participants to use the Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps/Volunteering Programmes. This aim summarises the entire idea of the training – to give a feeling of what it means to work with young people in an international setting. Leaving all explanations and knowledge aside it is about giving a space for participants to explore the advantages of ‘internationality’ themselves.
Appetiser is designed to achieve the following objectives:
● To familiarise participants with non-formal and intercultural learning and have a concrete example of how this can be done.
● To enjoy their fi rst intercultural youth project experience.
● To enable participants to share their local youth activities and related experience, within an international youth work context.
● To explore possibilities of support available for international youth activities offered by the Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps Programmes.
● To analyse examples of good quality youth projects supported by the Erasmus+ Youth and the European Solidarity Corps Programmes.
● To better understand how to benefi t from the international youth work context in participants' local practice.
Former participants testimonies
The former participants have left appreciative quotes about their learning experience and course impact:
“The course was very benefi cial for me. I feel I am more ready than ever to apply for youth programme projects.”
“My knowledge and skills have deepened because of the well-structured, section-by-section concept of the course. My attitudes have changed slightly because I have a deeper understanding of things.”
“I wish I had the opportunity to participate in this before I wrote my fi rst project application. I learned a lot, don't get me wrong, but I would have submitted a better application the fi rst time.”