TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Trisha Wilkinson
The Learning Impact for You(th) training course was delivered for youth workers, youth leaders, volunteering mentors, youth coaches and teachers focused on increasing the impact of non-formal learning experiences of young people by sharing practical methods on how to support young people to reflect, record and communicate their learning. It also gave the opportunity to explore how the Erasmus+ programme and European Solidarity Corps can support the learning for young people. The space was provided for participants to explore their role, both personally and professionally in this journey of learning.
Aims and Objectives
- To explore learning processes and to identify what is needed to reflect, record and communicate learning.
- To reflect on one's own role as a youth worker, youth leader, mentor, coach or teacher in supporting the transfer of non-formal learning experiences into valuable insights and opportunities for development.
- To explore the value of non-formal learning using Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges and European Solidarity Corps Volunteering.
- To engage and learn about the Youthpass process.
- To share together inspirational tools and methods.
The Learning Impact for You(th) training course was delivered for youth workers, youth leaders, volunteering mentors, youth coaches and teachers focused on increasing the impact of non-formal learning experiences of young people by sharing practical methods on how to support young people to reflect, record and communicate their learning.
The final numbers to attend was 17 participants, representing 11 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Turkey.
The training course was targeted to youth workers, youth leaders, mentors, coaches and teachers working directly with young people.
The profile of the participants that attended the training course was mixed in background and experience. There were participants directly working with young people in a youth group setting, some university students that support other students in their school life, volunteer youth workers and teachers . There was a large variation in the experience participants had of Erasmus+, and some had experience within the other education and training programmes within Erasmus+. For four participants this training course was their first experience of the programme. There was a very positive atmosphere of learning and supporting each other within the group.
The use of non-formal education methods and activities such as team challenges, brainstorming, reflection spaces, experiential learning, creativity based workshops, theatre performance and discussion, allowed participants to explore the meaning of learning, specifically non formal learning, to identify the importance of reflective learning and to gain an understanding of some learning theories that exist. Time was also given to identify how the Erasmus + programme and the European Solidarity Corps activities can be used as a tool to support this non-formal reflective learning process, and engaging with Youthpass to reflect, record and communicate learning.
This training course provided the space for participants to practice tools and methods to support the learning process. All of the activities used throughout the training course could be replicated by participants on their return home into their working reality. It was important that participants used this experience to explore how using non-formal learning activities can actively support young people to recognise the skills and knowledge that they can gain by being involved in non-formal education activities. It allowed for participants the possibility to discover meaningful roles and develop different tools in their work around youth projects.
The course also provided space for participants to share their organisational profile and professional experiences. Time was allocated to using the open space methodology, to ensure that all participants gained what they required in terms of meeting their learning goals and need for this training course.
Participants gave positive feedback through various evaluation methods used - Evaluation form, dartboard to visually represent the extent to which we achieved the objectives, the washing line of expectation used at the beginning and end of the training course to assess to what extent participants expectations were reached.
The number of final participants (17) was a great group to work with. The range of experience and diversity of groups they worked with allowed for in-depth sharing and learning. The atmosphere created was very positive and this was sustained throughout the training course.
As a trainer team, we were glad with the overall training flow, and happy that we were flexible to adapt elements of the programme to suit the learning needs of participants when needed.
The logistics were very well taken care of throughout the full training project and the trainers felt very supported in this area.
Overall it was a very positive learning experience for both trainers and participants.
I was co- training with two other trainers , Sanne de Kieviet and Jose Oliveria