TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Oksana Ty
The main aim of this project is to improve competences linked to the professional profiles of Youth Workers, Youth Trainers and Youth Leaders with an emphasis on the Key-Competence of “Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship” which includes creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives.
Based on the needs assessment of their target groups, the partners designed this training with the objectives:
A. to develop key skills and competences of Youth Workers, Youth Trainers and Youth Leaders in Non-formal Entrepreneurship Education and
B. To reinforce the capacity and international scope of organisations active in the youth field to promote Entrepreneurship with educational activities and initiatives to address the needs of young people
We asked partner organisation’s Youth Workers and Youth Leaders, as well as Youth Trainers about challenges they are most often faced with. Based on their replies, we identified the needs of prospective participants of this training course which are:
To improve knowledge and gain skills to promote entrepreneurial education;
To further develop their skills as trainers and facilitators;
To learn about various interactive non-formal education methods through learning by doing;
To be able to develop quality and interactive activities to support entrepreneurship among youth;
To develop quality European youth projects based on assessment of needs of their target groups.
To network with other participants to develop together new projects for youth;
To know how to make their activities inclusive for youth with disabilities, as well as promote female entrepreneurship;
To get practical information about entrepreneurship, existing trends and good practices;
To share cultures and experiences of their projects/organisations in order to learn from each other;
To get in touch with various stakeholders and entrepreneurs to get better and practical insight in entrepreneurship;
The project was designed to correspond to the needs of the partner organisations:
To build capacity to develop non-formal initiatives and educational activities to promote entrepreneurship;
To organise high quality projects within Erasmus+ and beyond;
To develop and deliver better activities for their target groups;
To raise quality of learning outcomes in groups of their target-groups;
To reinforce international cooperation and meet other European partners to develop future projects.
Participants of this project are Youth Workers, Youth Leaders, and Youth Trainers active in the youth field and willing to build their skills and capacity to develop quality initiatives and educational activities to promote entrepreneurship. They all have diverse backgrounds and levels of experience in the field of entrepreneurship.
Countries involved: Cyprus, Albania, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Ukraine.
WORKING METHODS
The methods are designed to be diverse and to promote experiential learning to be further enabled to unleash creative potential among youth and foster their learning.
-Non-formal participatory methods: The project is going to offer team building exercises in the beginning; energisers; Group exercises will be in the formats of the world cafe and live library; case studies; brainstorming; “speed-dating” with successful entrepreneurs; presentations; info-sessions; simulation games; reflection groups; buddy system; etc.
-Learning by doing: Participants will try different styles of entrepreneurship by practicing it during one day of the project. At the end of the main activity participants will design and prepare their own 30 min. presentation on the topic of the project for a chosen target group. In addition, after the training they are going to develop their own initiatives and prepare to implement them with Erasmus+ and beyond.
-Learning by experience: The Training itself is going to be an example for participants how to organise a good educational project and how to design and deliver quality activities for their target groups on the topic;
-Improvisation theater: To better understand entrepreneurship, the labour market and unemployment, as well as positions of various stakeholders in the society. To increase participation of youth in the society through non-formal entrepreneurial education. Theater session will create an environment, which encourages expression, active participation and creativity.
-Creative learning: Through drawing, textiles, photography, music, etc. participants will experiment with image making processes, which is much like the process of generation of an entrepreneurial idea. Participants will convey an idea or concept or alter the meaning or impact of the image (visual, auditory, etc.), explore a range of ideas using colour, shape, tone and select relevant visual information to come up with new ideas.
-Mentoring: To support participants in development and implementation of their project ideas after the training course, also to guide them in their further learning journey;
The training has been a success, especially in a group of participants. The PARTICIPANTS of the training:
- Improved competencies linked to their professional profiles (youth work, youth training, Youth Leadership), mentioned in the objectives of the training above.
- Broadened understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education;
- Increased capacity to trigger challenges (as well as responsiveness to those challenges) youth face in their communities, efficiently assess the needs of target groups and design activities, which are interactive and inclusive;
- Gained understanding of interconnections of entrepreneurial education, the labour market and relevant stakeholders;
- Increased opportunities for professional and career development.
I could tell that not only throughout the training program while monitoring the group dynamics, but also during the evaluation meetings with the participants after the training, as well as observing them apply new knowledge.
My role as a main trainer of the training involved:
- Designing the program of the training
- Delivering the activities
- Monitoring the group dynamics and progress of the participants throughout the project
- Evaluation of the project