TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
http://trainers.salto-youth.net/AndreiPopescu/
Trainer, facilitator, youth worker, volunteer...
Technocrat as Secretary of state in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, bureaucrat as Youth in Action, Erasmus+ and ESC coordinator in the Romanian NA or volunteer in various NGOs I have been followed by some “fluid” ideas such as nonformal learning, volunteering, youth work and NGOs capacity building.
Results: being involved in more than 250 national and international training courses and learning events as trainer, facilitator or organizer.
Andrei Popescu has 13 references for past work as a trainer.
mainly free lancer
I was involved in the last 20 years on more than 50 international and 200 national training courses, seminars, conferences and other types of learning events as organizer, trainer, facilitator, or expert of some sort.
Presently the most important activities may by
- Training courses on youth, nonformal learning and volunteering relevant topics such as international Project Labs, application writing and project management for Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps, OnArrival Training and MidTerm Evaluation for volunteers, policies and youth strategy development
- Community development and networking for three online interactive working spaces (access to relevant resources, support during the face to face and online events, developing micro-learning modules, co-creating and communication spaces for common needs or online challenges aiming to focus the community energy on a certain topic for a limited period of time).
o Concept developer and community manager of conTINuum (national youth worker community) and STRATEGIC focusing on strategic development and management (dedicated to the ESC organizations and Erasmus+ accredited volunteering)
o Support for community management of ProACTIV focusing on project management (dedicated to the and E+ mobility and participation projects and ESC solidarity projects)
- Facilitation on big events, learning processes and active engagement to develop policy or complex documents such as
o CONNECTOR 8th edition facilitator (learning lab focusing on experimenting active learning methods - Jun 2023, Bucharest, Romania, 88 participants, 16 countries)
o European Rural Youth Summit , 1st edition, concept developer and facilitator (Sep 2023, Aroneanu, Romania, 145 participants, 18 countries)
o Cross-Sectoral Forum on Youth Participation in Democratic Life, 1st edition rapporteur (Nov 2023, Jurmala, Latvia, 40 participants, 6 countries)
o Volunteering Organizations Annual Meeting 2024 concept developer and facilitator (Feb 2024, Bucharest, Romania, 98 participants)
o National Youth Workers Convention 4.0 concept developer and facilitator (Apr 2024, Bucharest, Romania, estimated 100+ participants, it will focus on youth engagement in the EU voting)
o CONNECTOR 9th edition facilitator (Jun 2023, Bucharest, Romania, estimated 80+ participant)
o European Rural Youth Summit , 2nd edition, concept developer and facilitator (Jul 2024, Hălăucești, Romania, 100+ participants, work in progress)
o Beyond Borders Stakeholders Conference Facilitator (Sep 2024, Bonn, Germany, estimated 100+ participants, work in progress)
o fYOUture of YOUth conference 2nd edition, concept developer and facilitator (Oct 2024, Budapest, Hungary, estimated 100+ participants, work in progress)
- Communication and policy development consulting
o communication support for the Youth&ESC Heads of NAs Network
o mapping and communication support for the Youth&ESC SNACs (Strategic National Agency Cooperation Projects)
o support in developing the city youth strategy for Ploiești (designated Romanian Youth Capital in 2024)
- Team-building activities for private sectors
Previous workplaces :
National Agency for Community Programs in the Field of Education and Vocational Training (Romanian National Agency for Erasmus+ / European Solidarity Corps):
* Co-Head of the Youth department (1.01.22 → 30.06.23)
* Head of European Solidarity Corps program and department (8.02.18 → 31.12.21)
* Head of the Communication department (8.02.18 → 1.11.19)
* NA Head of communication (1.01.14 → 9.12.15)
* Head of the Youth in Action program and department (1.11.06 → 31.12.13
Ministry of European Projects and Investments
* Minister Youth Advisor – part time (15/2/21 → 1/9/21)
Ministry of Youth and Sports Romania / Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council
* Vicechair – Youth Working Party during the Romanian Presidency at the Council of the European Union (15/12/18 → 30/ 05/ 19)
* Secretary of State for Youth Affairs (9/12/15 → 17/1/17)
Policy development and contribution
* Contributor for the „Youth and the European programs and policies dedicated to young people in Romania in the context of the European Year of Youth - 2022” – 2022, Economic and Social Council in Romania
* Contributor for the Youth Chapter in the Governmental Program - 2020
* Contributor for study “European Pillar of Social Rights: Reducing inequalities and social disparities in Romania. The evolutions of European policies and initiatives in the field of youth” – 2018, European Institute in Romania
* Policy development expert and contributor for Youth Policies Toolkit in Nonformal Se poate (Nonformal can be done) project - 2017, Asociația Nonformal se Poate
* Coordinator of the team of contributors for the handbook „Methods and tools to develop life skills in schools” – 2010, Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports and the Civil Society Development Foundation
* Expert and contributor on the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the EU Strategy for Youth – Investing and Empowering – SOC/349/1.10.2009
Nonformal experiences
The most formative experiences are the initiation, coordination and, later on, being part of the National Pool of Trainers for the Romanian AN together with the seven editions of the national Nonformal Education Lab and eight international editions of CONNECTOR where I as involved as organizer and facilitator.
The Pool of Trainers represent a continuous peer-to-peer learning experience and, since it start in 2008, it organized more than 1200 training courses with more than 25000 participants.
CONNECTOR and the Nonformal Lab are the kind of events where each facilitator turns into learner as well and the opened a new world of effective learning tools such as living library, labyrinth theater, improvisation theater or graphic facilitation just to name a few. Besides while involving more than 1500 people among the years and they created a sound base of networking among learning practitioners.
Other important formative experiences
Other relevant activities
* lecturer at Timișoara West University (2016 – 2017) for Learning and evaluation methods and strategies and Youth participation for pro-active engagement
* lecturer at the Alternative University for the Experiential Learning course (2014 - 2015)
* lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science for the Nonformal Education course (2016)
* initiator of the NoHate Speech campaign in Romania (2016)
* coordination and development of the nonformalii.ro, the main portal of nonformal learning tools in Romania
* coordinating the team of contributors for the "Like skills methods and tools to be used in the classroom" (2010 -2011 European funded project)
Formal educational experiences
The most important formal experiences remain the daily challenges that need to be met and answered on the job, especially as Secretary of state, a political position filled in as a technocrat and dealing with an extreme high number of situations and secondly of Youth in Action coordinator responsible both for setting up a transparent funding system doubled by an effective support system.
In terms of formal education:
1) Executive Master of Business Administration followed at Maastricht School of Management Romania & Pilkington Ratiu Business School (2012 - 2013) for both the professional teaching on topics such as Leadership, Ethics and executive leadership, Management of people, Negotiation strategies, Decision making, Crisis management, Managing organizational change as well as for offering a space to confront ideas such as nonformal learning and explain them to extremely smart people from a different background forcing you to get out of the comfort zone and being challenged sometimes on issues that normally are taken for granted in your working circles
2) Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest - Faculty of Economic Studies in Foreign Languages (1995 -1999) both for developing a economic background that proved to be very useful in real life situation as well as for the inter-cultural envirnoment (out of the 85 students only 30 were Romanian, the other 55 coming from countries such a South Korea, United States, Pakistan, Sudan, Greece a.s.o)
This profile was last modified on 2024-04-02