TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Mihaela Georgiana Adelina Dragomir
Unlock IT aims to foster digital entrepreneurship among youths through design thinking, in order
to efficiently develop solutions that can support young people during this crisis and post-crisis
situation, and through building partnerships between youth organizations to make use of existin
technologies to soften the pandemic effects on their target groups’ lives. The specific objectives of
the program are:
O1 equip 26 youth workers from 13 partner organizations and 13 countries to use design thinking
as a tool to foster digital entrepreneurship among youths in their communities
O2 develop know-how on using different digital tools for design thinking among 26 youth workers
from 13 partner organizations and 13 countries
O3 raise awareness on and create solutions to stimulate and support digital entrepreneurship
among youths, post-pandemic, in the communities of the partner organizations
O4 share best practices and promote partnership between 13 youth organizations from 13
countries, active in the field of digital entrepreneurship
France
The Republic of North Macedonia
Malta
Cyprus
Greece
Slovakia
Turkey
Spain
Lithuania
Portugal
Romania
Italy
Poland
The mobility used a participatory and experiential non-formal learning approach focused on digital entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and Design Thinking. The programme began with team-building and group-cohesion methods such as name games with movement, a human map, “2 Truths and 1 Lie”, “Would You Rather” and speed dating. Participants also reflected on their expectations, challenges and contributions and progressively co-created a group agreement. Creative methods such as collage-making and human statues were used to introduce key concepts and encourage participants to express their understanding and learning in visual and interactive ways.
A central methodological element was Design Thinking, which structured much of the learning process. Participants worked in mixed teams through the stages of Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test to develop solutions addressing challenges related to post-pandemic digital entrepreneurship for young people. Methods included Mentimeter word clouds, role-play, national-context mapping, facilitated discussions, SWOT analysis, problem trees, solution-mapping matrices and the Super Mario method. Digital tools were integrated throughout the process, while participants were encouraged to move between divergent brainstorming and more structured analysis and decision-making.
Learning by doing and peer-to-peer learning were particularly prominent. Participants explored online Design Thinking tools, facilitated their own workshops during a Digital Tools and Good Practices Fair, created a mascot representing a young digital entrepreneur and presented their cultures using digital tools. They also interacted with young entrepreneurs through a round table and received online coaching on their prototypes. During the testing phase, teams pitched their solutions, gathered feedback, improved their prototypes and transformed the results into step-by-step digital presentations that could be reused after the mobility.
Reflection and evaluation were integrated throughout the programme using varied non-formal methods, including Blob Tree, Five Fingers, a visual “Weather Forecast”, photo-based reflection, headline creation, Youthpass reflection and facilitated debriefing. The final evaluation combined an anonymous online survey with individual and group reflection, storytelling using the “until the match burns” method and personal goodbye notes. The programme therefore combined experiential learning, Design Thinking, peer learning, digital experimentation, coaching, creative expression, intercultural learning and continuous reflection.
https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/european-training-calendar/training/unlock-it-unlocking-digital-entrepreneurship-through-design-thinking-in-the-pandemic-context.9894/
Full time trainer