Training course for youth workers and young leaders
The training course that started our 2024 cycle. Youth workers and young leaders from 13 countries came to the farm to learn how to lead a youth exchange. Then they went off to design the four exchanges that followed.
Why
Our youth exchanges work best when they are led by people who know the farm, the team and the method, and who have designed the activities themselves. Take the Lead trained those people. Every partner organisation of the four youth exchanges sent participants. We made the course larger than planned so that there would be enough leaders for all four exchanges, plus some replacements.
What happened
Participants worked on the role of a Group Leader, on facilitating non-formal learning, on supporting a youth group and on the Erasmus+ project cycle. The core of the week was practical. Each youth-exchange group designed its own activities, tested them with the others and received feedback. It also drafted a mini application form for its exchange. Each day opened with a Morning Gathering, with time to write in a journal. The week ended with a Youthpass session and a final evaluation.
Before the course we met our partners online to present the workplan. Afterwards, each leader group met us online to prepare its exchange, using Zoom, Miro, Mentimeter and Padlet.
Results
- Confidence grew, in participants’ own retrospective self-assessment: facilitating non-formal learning from 6.3 to 8.6 out of 10, supporting a youth group from 6.65 to 8.45, and the Erasmus+ project cycle from 5.7 to 8.6.
- Designing and testing their own activities was the part participants valued most.
- 26 of 29 reported practical skills relevant to their work, and 23 experimented with new learning methods.
- The cascade worked. 25 participants were expected to take on a role in the youth exchanges. 17 of them came back as Group Leaders and 3 as facilitators or support staff.
“It’s hard to find opportunities to practice facilitation skills.” (a participant, on why the testing sessions mattered)