Play Your Part: Games, Youth Participation and Social Entrepreneurship

Play Your Part is an international training course organised by iKNOWLEDGY in Cairo, Egypt. It brings together youth workers, youth leaders and facilitators who want to use games to make youth participation more meaningful and help young people turn ideas into practical community initiatives.

Games can create opportunities to negotiate, make decisions, experiment and learn from mistakes. However, an enjoyable activity does not automatically become a meaningful learning experience. The course will explore how to choose, adapt and facilitate games with a clear purpose and how to help participants connect what happens during a game with their everyday lives.

Through board games, card games, role-playing and collaborative challenges, participants will explore three connected questions:

How can games give young people a stronger voice in decisions that affect them?

How can youth workers create activities in which different people feel able to contribute?

How can playful learning help young people identify community needs, develop ideas and take action together?

The entrepreneurship element will focus on initiative and social value rather than business creation alone. Participants will explore how to support young people in recognising a challenge, considering different perspectives, using available resources and testing a possible response.

Throughout the course, participants will move between experiencing activities, analysing the methods behind them and practising facilitation. Working in small international groups, they will develop and test game-based sessions that they can adapt to their own youth-work settings.

The course will encourage participants to share their own experience, question assumptions and learn from one another. You do not need to be a game designer or an entrepreneurship expert. You should be interested in participatory learning and willing to try, reflect and contribute.

Learning objectives
By the end of the course, participants will have had opportunities to:

1- Select and adapt games according to a group’s needs and learning objectives.

2- Facilitate activities that encourage participation, cooperation and shared decision-making.

3- Use debriefing to connect gameplay with learning about initiative, responsibility and community engagement.

4- Design, test and improve a game-based learning session.

5- Develop a realistic plan for using the methods in their own youth work.

Methodology
The course will use participatory, non-formal learning methods. Participants will learn by experiencing activities, reflecting on them and trying out approaches themselves.

Methods will include:

- Cooperative board and card games.

- Role-playing and simulations.

- Small-group challenges.

- Facilitated discussions and structured debriefing.

- Peer exchange and feedback.

- Practice sessions led by participants.

- Individual reflection and action planning.

Main programme themes:
- Participation: more than joining an activity

- Learning through games

- Inclusion in practice

- From ideas to community action

- Facilitation lab

Participant profile:
The course is intended for:

- Youth workers and youth leaders.

- Non-formal educators and facilitators.

- Staff or volunteers of organisations working with young people.

- People supporting youth-led community initiatives.

Participants should have an existing or planned role working with young people and a realistic opportunity to use the learning afterwards.

Previous experience with game-based learning or social entrepreneurship is not required. Selection will focus on motivation, relevance to the applicant’s youth-work context and willingness to contribute to a shared learning process.

The working language will be English. Participants should be able to take part in group activities and discussions; perfect fluency is not expected.

This training course builds on its interest in making education practical and participatory, while creating space for youth-work practitioners to exchange approaches and develop methods together.