TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Nuno Da Silva
Aim of the course
The main aim of this course is to train participants on ensuring a high quality standard in organising, implementing, evaluating and securing an effective follow up of study sessions and other training activities organised and run in cooperation with the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport with a special focus on social inclusion.
Objectives of the course
- To increase participants’ understanding about values underpinning European non-formal educational youth activities;
- To familiarize participants’ with the values, mission, structure and ways of working of the Council of Europe and in particular the Directorate of Youth and Sport;
- To develop essential competences for facilitators in non-formal education with multicultural youth groups assuring quality criteria in all aspects of study sessions;
- To develop participants understanding of Social inclusion and the way they can promote it through non-formal education activities;
- To explore the concepts of intercultural learning and human rights education and how these can be used in activities for social inclusion.
The target group were voluntary or employed staff of International non-governmental youth organisations, and other youth networks:
- who are conducting occasional training and other educational activities for young people and
- who are, or will be, responsible for or involved as facilitators in a study session or other educational activity at one of the European Youth Centres or
- in the framework of applications to the European Youth Foundation in 2010 or
- whose organisation plans to apply for a study session or a project funded by the European Youth Foundation in 2011.
Participants were comming from Council of Europe Member States.
The course gave participants the opportunity to experience, and reflect upon activities and concepts crucial in designing, running and evaluating educational activities for young people. The entire course was designed as a mutual learning situation in which, with use of diverse methods, participants could compare their approaches to education, facilitation and leadership, non-formal education and international youth work.
Contributions from experts in the training and non-formal education field established a theoretical framework and common reference points for learning and communication. Towards the end of the course, participants had the opportunity to analyse the format of different study sessions and international activities of international youth organisations and design a programme for some of them.
As a result of the previous 3 training courses for facilitators, a manual for facilitators of study sessions was developed and published in 2009. This publication was used as a basis for the development and running of the activity.
The most important result of the training course is to have developed participants' competences
in preparing, running and evaluating study sessions and other types of international youth
activities.
The group of participants was efficient and dynamic, which resulted in a very cooperative active
learning environment for all participants. It was visible that the understanding of the participants
has been developed remarkably and the personal and professional development was one of the
major achievements of the course. The performances of the participants at the workshops during the practice sessions were remarkable despite the limited time for the program elements.
Many participants expressed that they are now informed and aware of the Directorate of Youth
and Sport activities, its approaches to non-formal education and human rights education as well
as intercultural learning. Most of the participants were highly motivated to create new activities together to further develop their competences and improve their cooperation in the future.
The majority of participants left the course with a clear understanding on the role of the
educational activities in the youth field and the relevancy of such activities for the Council of
Europe. Their level of experience within the group of participants varied widely, whereas some
of them were already quite experienced in non-formal educational activities, some others had
their first international training experience during the course. The diversity within the
participants' group created challenges for the programme but mostly resulted in a remarkable
enriching sharing of experiences between them.
All participants could develop their understanding of non-formal education, its theoretical
background, main principles and practice its implementation. Participants also developed their
understanding of the core principles of human rights education and intercultural learning and its
relation with other youth activities in general. However, since the course duration was quite
limited, it was not possible to go deep in such issues. Participants had the space to reflect on
different aspects of facilitation and practice their skills during the course. The time allocated for
the course is short, allowing only limited time to work on major issues such as human rights
education and other priority areas of the Council of Europe and limited time for the preparation
and implementation of the practical workshops by the participants.
I was a full time senior trainer.