TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Hochstein Norbert
The objectives of Changemaker were:
- to improve youth workers’ competences and prevent personal and/or professional burnout
- to introduce YouthPass as a tool for self-assessment, learning process design, facilitation, evaluation and recognition of learning
- to provide practical tools and skills to support volunteering and entrepreneurship of young people
- to encourage best-practice sharing and the creation of international projects among local- youth NGOs within E+
The training was focused on skills improvement in the fields of creativity, initiative and entrepreneurship, putting it in the context of the key competences, relating it to ourselves as professionals as well as to our target groups. A2 More emphasis was put on interpersonal dynamics among people of diverse backgrounds.
The target group of CHANGEMAKER was youth workers in the widest sense: trainers, coaches, mentors, NGO staff, peer educators, facilitators of non-formal learning, both professionals and volunteers, active in grassroot NGOs and initiatives and/or working with target groups at risk. Youth workers and NGO staff in the partnership have a mixed background: social work, pedagogy, psychology, andragogy, economy and management, with few years field experience, mainly as participant, less as youth worker, with no professional training in methods and no structured, conscious development of their own professional competences. Their experience relates to the focused themes and methods of their own NGO, their competences grew from their natural talent, enthusiasm and commitment.
Working methods were based on non-formal, experiential learning, highly participatory in the TCs as well as their local level preparation and follow-up:
- structured exercises from outdoor, dance, theatre, art, problem solving activities
- self-directed learning of participants according to their own learning goals and the YouthPass process: goalsetting, daily reflection on progress in „dialogue groups”, mid-term and final evaluation
- interactive presentations, case studies, facilitated debates and discussions
- information about YouthPass and the Erasmus+ Program
- workshops on learning process design, human resources and volunteer management, planning and organising and mentoring techniques, teamwork and communication, body language, interpreting advertisements, self-assessment, tools of coaching, mentoring and counselling
- 3-day outdoor training
Concerning professional competences of youth workers participants learned
tools of learning process design: YouthPass, key competences, Mosaic method, daily monitoring of progress, sets of questions to facilitate reflection
facilitation of smaller groups
techniques and methods of coaching young people’s teams to handle challenging cases of dynamics
techniques and methods of coaching themselves as facilitators, handling emotional involvement and preventing burnout
critical assessment of several non-formal methods available, ability to choose the one suitable for the target group
mapping target group needs
setting learning objectives and making learning plans
monitoring progress by creative methods
use of the planning tool called „circle of creativity” for a variety of purposes: learning plans, project planning, carreer planning
practical ways to express values in action, set SMART objectives
making implementable action plans, monitor and evaluate implementation
handling unexpected situations in a project or specific activity
strategies of decision-making individually and in groups
self-reflection: identifying patterns of behaviour in themselves and their target groups and considering whether these patterns serve or limit them in their given life-situation, ways to find creative, proactive solutions to bring new results
Concerning personal competences, the self-coaching tools proved to be the most useful in both TCs. Participants improved their skills in verbal and non-verbal communication, especially asking questions to explore reality and rely on true information instead of stereotypes, giving feedback and suggestions in a constructive way, and the ability to adapt to the behaviour of the other person. Their ability to integrate and work in an international team grew and they all expressed their willingness to improve interpersonal relationships by using the tools learned in their NGO sas well as in their private lives.
All participants improved in the competences the project focused on:
cultural awareness and expression:
- deeper knowledge of and open behaviour towards different cultures and social groups
- preparedness and willingness to solve conflicts and challenges in youth groups
- verbal and non-verbal communication, asking questions, giving constructive feedback and suggestions, confident self-expression
- work in international team, building on diversity as a resource
creativity and enterpreneurship:
- mapping reality, recognise new aspects and opportunities in themselves and in their environments
- setting up plans based on values, defining practical, SMART objectives and realistic action plans
- taking risks and initiative, showing proactive attitude
- monitoring and evaluating progress based on plans
- handling unexpected situations in a creative way
social and civic competences:
- seeing and activating networking possibilities
- decision-making
- increasing relevance: connect activities into local context
learning to learn:
- self-directed learning: self-assessment, defining own needs, setting goals, planning, following own learning process
- listening to and building on feedback and suggestions for our own improvement
- ability to support each other’s learning process with questions, suggestions and feedback
- self-coaching and coaching groups of young people
Before the training my responsibility was to design the program, to create the structure, arranging the time schedule, amplifying the program to the needs of the applicants. I was doing an online preparation for the candidates.
During the course I was responsible for the content of the training. I was guiding the learning process of the participants and the organiser team members as well. This responsibility includes skills and competences such as like : Leading processes, facilitate group processes, handling group dynamics, dealing with extreme situations on spot, doing debriefings after each activity and briefings before every session. Evaluating and closing the training course was also part of my task.
After the course I was supporting participants by online coaching and asked materials, notes about lectures.