TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Corina Pintea
Long-term Learning Project VOLU.M.E was composed of
the training course + the seminar
aimed at providing possibilities for EVS stakeholders to share knowledge and experience for the sake of developing competencies of youth workers and organisations in volunteer management and mentoring of EVS volunteers in order to improve quality of EVS projects as learning experiences in all levels - from the writing of a project right through the closing and evaluation.
TRAINING COURSE aimed in the exchange of expertise, investigating good practise, creating a support network amongst the partner organisations, development of tools, development of documentation that will enhance the quality of EVS projects.
Tools developed were expected to be implemented in a period of 8-10 months in existing EVS projects of the participant organisations.
SEMINAR was dealing with the feedback on implemented tools (products of the training) in real life situations of EVS projects as well as developing new products to improve the quality of EVS projects.
The seminar also focused on refining the tools for dissemination to other organisations involved in International EVS volunteering projects.
Topics: Quality in EVS projects, Management of Volunteers, Project Management, Roles of parties involved in EVS projects, Mentoring, Possible ways for overcoming obstacles in EVS projects, Creating Tools and Products.
18 EVS stakeholders (project managers, mentors, ex-volunteers) coming from Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Poland and Slovenia.
Team of Trainers
Panayiotis Theodorou – Cyprus (training course)
Milena Nikolic – Serbia (training course + seminar)
Corina Pintea – Romania (training course + seminar)
The methodology used is specific to non-formal education and learning. Both individual and group methods were used taking into consideration participants’ learning needs.
During the long-term project participants have:
- learned the 9-step process of Volunteer management and understood its applications and links to the EVS projects and volunteers
- understood the way an EVS project is created, implemented and evaluated and what are the main challenges faced when dealing with such projects
- became more aware about the determinant role of the mentor in a significant learning process for the volunteer
- learned the exact roles of all actors in EVS (HO, SO, Volunteer) and can use them in the documents of the partnership
- been able to prepare their organizations much better for the involvement of EVS volunteers
- had the opportunity to take initiative and develop, facilitate and evaluate a half-a-day workshop for peer youth workers
- understood better the reality of EVS in all partner countries
- heard and analysed the perspective of very different actors in EVS on the EVS challenges (especially hearing the opinions of former EVS volunteers or mentors offered project coordinators a valuable perspective)
- become aware of the success factors in EVS and all the effort needed to ensure qualitative projects
- learned what steps to take in their own organizations to ensure more quality in projects and in the way they create a learning setting for the volunteers
- become more prepared to take an active role in their organizations
- become more aware of the way they learn better, what conditions they need to acquire competences themselves and what skills they still want to develop in their youth-work career
- become more tolerant and open to a wider variety of EVS volunteers, with very different needs, including young people with fewer opportunities, and also more committed to create projects where these young people can find valuable learning experiences.
I had a role of a full-time trainer both during the first training course and then also during the second project event - the seminar. More explicitly, I was responsible for design, implementation and evaluation of the learning program of the whole long-term project, with its two separate international events, as well as the communication activities in between. The program was reviewed and evaluated every day and adjusted according to the learning needs of participants.