TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Barnabás Gulyás
- Encourage participants to facilitate medium and long -term period programmes alone.
- To create a learning space together with participants which can be the safest space to try out different situation – concerning facilitating.
- To explore the personal needs for development in terms of facilitating group learning pro-cesses.
- Together with participants start to plan new projects ideas where they could use their new skills in action, prepared projects would be recommended to submit to national agencies.
There were two target groups:
1. Youth workers: they were participant at the Training Course then facilitator at the youth exchange.
2. Young people aged between 16-25: they were participant at the youth exchange.
Trainers team were including Hungarians at this time only.
Facilitators were from Hungary, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Lithuania, Greece as well as the participants at youth exchange.
The second edition of the Academy were more complex and we focused mostly on junior trainers, beginners in trainer role. We reccommended the TC for those participants who had at least one experience in being facilitator’s role (likely those who has facilitated workshops previously). We also tried to strengthen the responsibility of partner organizations and tried to build a stronger cooperation with them, as it was essential to have a support for participants who took part in the training course. The Academy also highlighted the importance of practice, thus we applied funding for a youth exchange also which was 3 months after the TC and participant from the TC were invited to take a role as facilitators.
About the content:
During the training course we started with an intensive competence developing part with a general focus on facilitation, group work, and group dynamics. That part was mostly provided as professional input from the trainers. Then at the second part we focused on the individual development of all participants with a special focus on youth work. Non-formal education and experiential learning were our used methods, and about different things all participants got handouts. The aim of the training course was to train youth worker who are eager to fulfil their facilitation skills and to “prepare” them to organize a youth exchange on their own.
For the youth exchange we provided a framework and topic as it was required when applying, but we wanted our participants to decide most of the things according to that. So it happened that way. The YE tackled the issue of heroism in relation with active citizenship.
The trainers wereBarnabas Gulyás and Vanda Kovács who are experienced trainers in youth work field.
11 trained facilitators, a combined learning and practice process included within a youth exchange for all participants, a mentoring system.
Together with Vanda, I was the initator of the Facilitation Academy.
During the project I was mostly repsonsible of the content related with group dynamics, relations within the group, facilitator's skills and the project management during a YE.