A Step Forward in Youth Employment: Enriching Regular Youth Work with Quality Entrepreneurial Learning – Croatia

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Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Training Course

Venue: Split, Croatia

Dates: 1 – 9 November 2016

Participants: Wanda Vozáryová, Tereza Svobodová

Please read the info-pack a daily programme

Participating countries: Croatia, FYROM (Macedonia), Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Slovenia

Hosting organisation: Udruga za unaprjeđivanje suvremenih životnih vještina “Ostvarenje” Association for improvement of modern living skills “Realization” 

Project report:

During the first two weeks of October, me and my colleague Teréz were lucky enough to participate in the mobility of youth workers, TC Youth Employment in the beautiful and magical city of Split.

After long 20 hours of bus ride we reached the coastal area of Crotia and the same evening, were expected in the design hostel Goli + Bosi in the old town. As for the accommodation, we were staying in architecturally interesting venue, where design was on the first place and the environment was very inspirational. But I have to say, that sometimes it was even too futuristic, because for example, our room did not have door to bathroom. So we had to use creative thinking on the issue how to maintain privacy. J

Our TC was dedicated to the topic of EL, which stands for entrepreneurial learning. After fist day full of name games and practicalities, since the second day we scratched the surface regarding the topic itself. During non formal activities we learned about Youthpass and we clarified what actually entrepreneur is and that this term does not contain only businesses, but social initiatives, projects and many platforms of active citizenship. And that this potential is hidden in lot of us, it just needs to be discovered. It was very enriching to hear and share experiences of other participants, as for example our French colleague, who is  sending European women and coordinates them to train women in Africa, or Romanian collegue with his experiences in HR or another Romanian friend who has established successful NGO dedicated to language clubs: where people teach their language to others on voluntary basis. And just saying, the have even classes of Czech.

But back to the program, this was on upcoming days followed by using creative methods of dicussions, fishbowl dialogue or roleplays. We explored our position in society further, or discussed on the burning questions regarding the state of educational system. Since the part of the topic was youth unemployment, we discussed bases of our educational system and its efficiency and its role in increasing employability. We discussed on prejudices towards certain jobs and the fact, that people are not always educated according to their skills. One of the last days was dedicated to developing our own initiatives. My team decided to organize a festival full of workshops to increase the EL of youth which in the end, would have the chance to develop their own initiatives in a coworking space. We simulated the discussion and approval of this project with school principal, youth coordinator and the representative of Chamber of Commerce.

I have been on a couple of projects and unfortunately, as for the group dynamics, our group was divided and didn’t spend time together. But that’s is completely normal and sometimes is even good to have real expectations from E+ projects, which are not always perfect in all aspects. After all, the engagement into the activities is on the first place when talking about exchange projects.

 

I would like to thank EYCB for providing me with this possibility, their punctual coordination of the project and kind communication. They deserve the support of everyone!

Wanda Vozáryová

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