AIM & ONBJECTIVES:

The main aim of this training course was to empower young people to engage actively in youth organizations and develop their understanding of non-formal education and thereby develop their social, personal and professional development and competences.

Specific objectives:

• to stimulate young people to actively participate in youth organizations and projects in their community

• to encourage and support young people coming from different social and cultural backgrounds in the process of becoming engaged in leadership roles in youth work

• to introduce the basic principles and standards of youth work and non-formal education/learning

• to provide a diverse set of tools and methodologies available to be used by the young people in order to achieve their personal goals

• to strengthen young people's self-esteem and ability to initiate their own project ideas together with their peers and other stakeholders in their community

• to present to the young people the learning opportunities on European level that are offered by the Erasmus Plus Programme and to assist them in the process of creating their personal development plan for the near future.

DEECRIPTION

SUBKULT has organized an 8-days training course named: “YOUTHIFICATION - 2016” for 35 young people coming from 15 different countries: Switzerland, United Kingdom, Armenia, Azerbaijan, N. Macedonia, Estonia, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain, Greece, Serbia, Albania and Ukraine.

These young people were new in the field of youth work and were just starting their journey towards new challenges offered by many youth organizations. How do I become an active member of a youth organization? What is the procedure for becoming a youth worker? What will it mean for my personal and professional development? Am I just losing my time on unimportant things? Those were the questions that this training course tried to provide answers for.

We focused on developing youth workers’ competences in order those young people to become professional youth workers. Even though the term “professional” is differently interpreted in different countries, our conviction is that each community has a need of a structured, organized and recognized profession – youth worker.

The participants were actively engaged in the training course through application of diverse non-formal learning methodology such as: presenting inputs and theories, analyze case studies, organizing coaching sessions, role play & simulation activities, experiential learning, exercises where participants were practicing skills and use different tools. One very important aspect of this training course was the self-exploration and research of different learning opportunities of the participants in their local reality using the community mapping technique.

We used the internet as an open space suggesting many websites and information that will be very useful for the participants, especially after returning back to their homes. This was the way how the trainers supported and stimulated participants' learning and at the same time they were encouraged and motivated to get advantage of many other possible opportunities that they discovered during this training course as positive practice. Due to the fact that the participants had different level of experience in youth work, the exchange of these experiences that took place, influenced on participants' dedication of continuing with their investment in development of the social, professional and personal competences, all in direction of providing quality youth work in their local communities.

The term "professional youth worker" was explored from many different aspects that provided to the participants valuable understanding of the role of the youth worker in different settings. This was one key objective for this training course that has been achieved. The evidence for this was the feedback from the participant and partner organizations, after the training course, which was highly positive that resulted with continuous communication between the participants and their organizations for future cooperation.

Throughout this project we informed the participants and brought them closer the Erasmus Plus Programme opportunities, motivating and encouraging them actively to engage as youth workers and young leaders in the processes for bringing positive changes in Europe, which will bring innovative approaches in the youth work field and will open new perspectives for the young people’s career building. The project had strong impact on the young people's behavior and attitudes towards the youth work and non-formal education, as a direct result of the practical aspect of the training course that put the participants directly into the role of a youth worker.