Quality of European Youth Work - It's About You(th)

Aims & objectives

Aim:
- To improve the capacities and enable the aspirations of organizations and institutions so they can contribute to and benefit from carrying out higher quality projects, thus ensuring more opportunities and higher standards of non-formal education for youth in their communities and around Europe.

Objectives:
- Acquisition of new skills and knowledge regarding the 8 key competences of trainers and educators in youth work as formulated by the European Training Strategy II.
- Broader knowledge of new youth work methods and practices to actively involve young people and to address disadvantaged groups.
- Raised awareness of the importance of non-formal education and youth work in youth development.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Target group:
Educators, trainers, volunteers and general practitioners of youth work, people who work on implementation of the projects, development of methodologies and work directly with the target group – youth in general and youth with fewer opportunities in particular.

Countries involved:
Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Turkey.

Training methods used & main activities

During the TC a broad range of elements and methods regarding an essential variety of non-formal working methods, adaptable to the profile of the participants were used. In detail the activities included different elements as direct experience, reflection on the experience, generalization and applying lessons learned. This includes active methods for group dynamics; the common work in mixed groups; learner – centered and based on the experiences of participants; based on a personal responsibility for learning, supported by a strong group dimension and a collective approach; enabling participants to apply and transfer what they learnt to their youth work practice and be open to regular feedback and evaluation among all participants, the team and the trainers.

Outcomes of the activity

The professional development of participants and general professionalization in youth work, encouraging self-initiative, creativity and modernization, developing the capability to analyse obstacles and opportunities within the youth sector and to identify potential strategies to effect change are the most important outcomes of the activity.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

Coordinator of the trainer team.

I worked on this training for 7 days as a full time trainer.