TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Mihaela Amariei
“Strategic Partnerships Plus” was a three-day event aiming to develop viable cross-sectoral strategic partnerships to be submitted in 2017 under Erasmus+ / Key Action 2.
Theme
The thematic focus was non - discrimination and no hate speech movement in Europe and how to tackle these issues in strategic partnership projects. Erasmus+ frame offers both the opportunity and the appropriate tools to fight racism, xenophobia, intolerance or other form of social exclusion.
Aims
- to create a space for developing partnerships that are able to submit good quality applications and implement effectively cross-sectoral strategic partnerships
- to provide the necessary information and skills to understand and implement such partnerships
- to provide a space for sharing knowledge and experiences between organizations involved in all types of learning activities
The event gathered representatives from schools, VET organisations, public institutions and public authorities, youth associations, NGOs, companies, social enterprises, from Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme countries.
We had 29 participants (Youth workers, Youth leaders, Project managers, Youth Policy Makers), from 12 countries: Cyprus, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Spain.
The event placed the participants in the centre of the learning process through interactive methods, while focusing on the understanding of the concepts and specifics of working in international projects.
We worked both in plenary and divided in two groups (2 trainers/group).
Examples of the methods used: icebreakers, energizers, role play, problem tree model, solution tree model, Q&A, brainstorming and brainwriting, presentations by itself or combined (verbal, audio, video, prezi, PPT, PDF, graphic), working in small groups.
After considering the participant's and organizer's impact assessment on their learning goals and expectations I can conclude that all the above aims were met and the event was "labeled" by most participants in the field as one of the most serious/professional international event they attended so far from the perspectives of logistical arrangements, content and topics worked on, the logical flow and adaptation to the participant's learning needs, co-facilitation of their learning process by 4 professional trainers and a large team of experts of the Romanian NA, from all sectors of Erasmus+.
The group was diverse in terms of experience regarding the Erasmus+ Programme, competences on project development process and establishing strategic partnership: several participants had extensive experience, several with medium experience and the rest with less towards none experience. This mixture gave the possibility to all participants to find an active role in the event and simulate the role of a potential partner in an Erasmus+ KA2 project.
There were 7 KA2 project ideas developed (3 in group and 4 in another group) on topics related to non-discrimination and no hate speech movement. In the group I was involved as trainer and facilitator the 3 problems identified as base for the development of the 3 project ideas were:
- Low level of understanding of human rights and responsibilities among youth (14-19 years)
- Low degree of integration of people with special needs in the labor market
- Difficulties in integrating migrant pupils in the formal school system
The activities were led by 4 experienced facilitators/trainers and a team of expert from the Romanian National Agency, with sound understanding of the learning process and strategic partnerships.
I had responsibilities both in the plenary sessions and group work. Together with my colleagues I was involved in the whole process: preparing the agenda, the flow, the allocated time for each topic, developing the detailed design with specific methodology for each session, delivering on content, facilitating communication between the participants and NA experts, providing support for the informal and intercultural learning also, drafting the final report.