TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Xavier Baró Urbea
European Citizenship in Youth Work training course is addressing the key aspects related to education for European citizenshipand targeting youth workers and youth leaders.
The contents of the course range from citizenship and democracy, youth work, Europe and European citizenship, Human Rights and ICL.
The aim is to «support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders by extending their critical understanding of European Citizenship, by exploring and experiencing the potential of the notion of European Citizenship, and by enabling them to recognise and integrate European Citizenship in their youth work.»
The training course has five objectives to realise this aim, namely to:
- critically explore the meaning relevance and implications European citizenship in
youth work in all its dimensions;
- promote and facilitate the active use of programmes and structures in support of
youth work on European Citizenship, including the «Youth in Action» programme;
- experience and explore the potential of European Citizenship for active democratic change in society;
- associate the participants with the current discourse on European Citizenship (its concepts, formal meanings and expressions);
- exemplify the connection between European Citizenship, Human Rights, Democracy and Intercultural Learning and the underlying values.
The team is composed of 2 trainers, out of a pool of four international trainers that alternate on its composition.
The course is designed for a group of 25 participants from programme countries as well as other European countries (EEC and SEE)
All participants were youth leaders and multipliers with a minimum of 1 year experience and interested in developing and integrating European Citizenship in their youth activities.
The training addressed European Citizenship in youth work and all connected issues by means of non-formal learning, based on the participants experience, motivation, needs and the individual's own learning objectives.
The participants were responsible for their own learning, while the team and the group supported them.
Non-formal learning also meant facing a challenge, experiencing and learning to cope with quite a bit of stress, but also – lots of fun!
Through the evaluation it is visible an increase on the familiarity on the Concept of European Citizenship as well as the knowledge on the Programme Erasmus+ Youth in Action.
Participants identified as well a great increase in their confidence on presenting, discussing and promoting European Citizenship among youth groups.
This happens twofold:
• Competences of participants were developed
• The confidence of participants on engaging youth work on EC increased.
The 2 trainers together were responsible for the tailoring of the contents and methods used to the needs and understanding of the participants, so to support their understanding of the concept and its applicability in their home environment.
My additional role was to be in contact with the participants before the event to help their preparation and to link with the NA support person and the organisers from ECORYS.