Programme & action: ERASMUS+: Youth, Key Action 1: Youth Exchange
Venue: Viljandi, Estonia
Youth exchange dates: 24 July—1 August 2021
APV dates: TBA
Please read the info-pack.
Participants’ fee: (collected by the hosting organisation): €20/participant
Participating countries: Estonia, Italy, Czech Republic, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine
Hosting organisation: Mittetulundusühing Discovering Opportunities
Czech team: Helena Pechová (GL), Alexej Petečel, Tereza Kahounová, Klára Halouzková
Prroject report:
Last Saturday in July, early morning, Prague. We were getting on the bus heading to Brno to meet the rest of the Czech team. Our final destination? Viljandi, Estonia. What’s Next? How to find your passion was the name of the youth exchange. We spent such an amazing week together with the other 5 countries learning more about Non Formal education, creating a portfolio or exploring our role in society.
The very first day was dedicated to getting to know each other. We struggled with the names of others a bit but enjoyed several funny games and time spent outside. By the way, we experienced all kinds of weather in Estonia.
Thanks to these games, we were later on easily able to cooperate among teams in group activities.
Every day there were about four workshops. You may be familiar with the concept that some workshops are led by different countries. That was also our case. Each country prepared about three workshops and had a chance to facilitate them.
The intro to non formal education led the team from Georgia to find out more about the differences between formal and non formal methods of learning.
The next day was the time for our team to facilitate a workshop about the advantages and disadvantages of unemployment. Interestingly we also discussed the influence of unemployment on society. Continuing with the workshop about reasons for unemployment and also the support which is offered, we were brainstorming about obstacles that people may face during searching for a job.
Even though the youth exchange was mainly about finding the right career path there was also some other interesting workshops such as intercultural sensitivity where we tried to step out of our comfort by pushing the limits in our personal space. We should also mention a workshop about creativity.
One of the goals for the youth exchange was to learn how to express ourselves through different methods such as role-playing, writing or drawing. So we were playing theatre about responding to challenging situations or drawing important moments in our life to map the competencies we had obtained.
To sum it up, we had a wonderful time in Estonia experiencing the role of facilitator in our workshops, practising English, learning about different cultures during intercultural nights, about ourselves, our strengths and possible ways of further development. Many thanks to EYCB for this chance to participate and also Marco + the Estonian team for taking care of us and doing their best.
Helena Pechová
