Training of Trainers for the Nordic countries

Who is this course for?

This training of trainers is for you - if;

• you are living in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden;
• you have experience in youth work field;
• you are interested to learn more about designing and facilitating non-formal learning activities;
• you either have basic prior knowledge of European youth programmes or can dedicate time to learn more about them;
• you are motivated to do freelance work in cooperation with the Erasmus+ and/or European Solidarity Corps National Agencies;
• you can work in English;
• you are older than 18 years old.

We are well aware that some of the terms/concepts above (and below) might mean different things in different countries. If you need further clarification, feel free to get in touch with the contact person in your country (see the emails at the end of this page). Then you will know for sure if this course is for you or not. 

What is this course about?

In a nutshell, the course is about getting better at designing and implementing non-formal activities with/for young people and youth workers. The context of the course is European youth programmes in the Nordics; yet the competences you will develop are adoptable beyond that; from your very local youth activity to international.

Through this long- term course; you will;

• get better in designing, implementing and evaluating learning activities;
• be part of a community of non-formal learning practitioners in the Nordic countries through residential seminars and online activities;
• have better knowledge of both of the European youth programmes, namely Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps;
• have a chance to work with a mentor on assessing your competences as a trainer and developing a learning plan for yourself;
• have a chance to work with one of the involved National Agencies on a freelance practice contract.

Structure of the course with the time it requires:

The course is structured around three residential seminars (2 full days for the first seminar; 4 full days for the second seminar and 2 full days for the last seminar – place to be seen. In total 8 days without travel days).

1st seminar: 8-9 June 2023, Norway

2nd seminar: 22-25 August 2023, Finland

3rd seminar: in the week 15 of 2024, exact dates and place to be seen

There will be few online sessions in between the residential seminars (6 hours in total. Maximum 2 hours per session).

Meetings with your mentor will mostly be online and timing of these will be decided according to your and your mentor’s calendar (In total 8 hours of mentoring is foreseen).

A certain amount of time is also needed to be dedicated for self-organised learning (An average of 28 hours of self-organised time is expected).

Finally, the practice activity: all the participants of this training of trainers will be offered a freelance practice contract for a non-formal learning activity, organised by one of the 5 National Agencies involved. The offer might be from the National Agency of the country you are coming from, or from any of the other National Agencies involved. 

The other programme elements of the training course (seminars, online sessions, mentoring, self-organised learning) will support the practice activity. As these activities will be of different nature and format; it is hard to foresee how much time it will require and what would be the trainers' fee. Participants and their practice projects will be matched between the first and the second seminar based on the availability, interest and commitment. Although the preparation of these activities might start earlier, most of the activities will take place between October 2023 and March 2024.

Examples of non-formal activities organised by the National Agencies:

We are glad you are reading this!

These activities are mainly to increase the capacity of organisations to do meaningful European youth projects or to increase the quality of existing projects. They can be organised on local, regional or international level. It is common to have a team of 2-3 trainers / facilitators working on the same activity together. These teams can be national or international as well.

Here are some examples: a 4-day international training course about how to organise youth exchanges; a national expert seminar on youth participation; a regional training course for mentors of young volunteers who are about to start volunteering in another country; a study visit to learn more about rural youth work in another country; an international partnership-building activity for youth organisations to form project ideas and initiate cooperation.

The target group of these activities are often professional / volunteer youth workers that work with young people on a regular basis. At times, young people also attend to these activities together with their youth workers.

What would the freelance practice contract look like:

The exact terms of the contracts depend on the country, the duration of the activity, together with the scope of the tasks. The common fee for international activities in the European youth programmes is around 330 Euros per day. This amount can be adjusted according to the national realities when working on the national / Nordic level. The duration is calculated including the time required for preparation, implementation, and the reporting. If the activity is to be designed from a new concept, this reflects on the calculation of number of days. 

What happens after the training of trainers:

It is uncertain how many contracts would a person get after participating to Training of Trainers. It can be a few or many; depending on the activities, availabilities, limitations, and competences involved. Still, it is worth to mention that this training course is organised as an investment to increase the number of trainers that the related National Agencies work with; so, the intention is clear. You could also consider that attending to such a training course would also increase your full time or freelance employment possibilities on local, national and international level with/for other institutions and organisations. 

Who are the related National Agencies and the contact persons?

The following National Agencies run the European youth programmes in their respective countries. Although a big part of their daily work is about providing financial support for organisations and initiatives in the youth field; they also organise activities to raise the capacities of these organisations; to increase the quality of their projects and to support youth workers in their professional competences. Check their websites to learn more.

For general questions about this Call, you can contact Gulesin Nemutlu Unal: . For country specific questions, you can get in touch with the contact person in your country:

Finland: https://www.oph.fi/erasmusplus

Paavo Pyykkonen -

Sweden: http://www.mucf.se/

Lars Nilsson -

Denmark: http://www.ufm.dk/erasmusplus

Alexander Clausen -

Norway: https://erasmusplussungdom.no/

Gry Nesse - and Gulesin Nemutlu Unal -

Iceland: http://www.erasmusplus.is/
Óli Örn Atlason -

Finally; here are two gates for you to learn more about the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes:

Erasmus+: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/

European Solidarity Corps: https://youth.europa.eu/solidarity_en