This project is the third part of a trilogy which started with ”The suitcase, the map and the voyage of a youth worker” which had great positive results in terms of indicators, continued with “Online Training Courses for E+ Youth Workers” in order to arrive now to a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment and takes the results on a higher level and connect them with young people as well. The partnership is set to create an increased capacity and new level of work professionalism at EU/international level in the field of youth. In order to achieve these goals, 4 main objectives have been set for 2 years of the project: 1. Exploration by 150 young people of an online pre-departure training built for future European volunteers; 2. Improving the preparation for potential future youth exchanges of 150 youngsters – participants in a dedicated online course; 3. Increase the valorisation capabilities of 150 people - participants in the proposed online module and potential participants in experiences abroad; These online tools that are to be developed in the project will be integrated in an online learning platform and will have at least the following items included: • Introductory assessment (compulsory for participant before starting the course); • Map/Mind map/Graph with the main aspects/topics to be considered for preparation; • Theoretical part for each chapter in the form of an e-book; • Short movies explaining the theory, making it more attractive; • A catalogue with real-life examples emphasizing how new knowledge can be applied; • Minimum bibliography to consult – websites with text/video, talks, online free books etc – providing links to resources to read/watch; • Missions/Tasks to be done in order to apply the theory of the module/chapter – supplementary work for the participant – to do research, to apply, to create, to transfer into practice what has been learnt; • Final assessment – as part of the assessment and evaluation process; • Badge award; • The feedback questionnaires; • Peer evaluation; • Team work ; • Presentation area; • Forum. In terms of developed competences, each course/module on the learning platform will have main competences associated, i.e. by successfully completing modules, participants will develop/acquire certain competences. Upon successful completion of the course, the participant will receive an online certificate stating the main themes/activities covered and the acquired competences. The main beneficiaries of these online tools will be 450 young people considering having an experience abroad – EUROPEAN VOLUNTEERING, youth mobility, repatriates. They will be provided necessary orientation and training to get the most out of their international experience, as follows: 150 participants in the first online training course will develop competences necessary in EUROPEAN VOLUNTEERING experiences; 150 participants in the second online training course will develop competences necessary in contexts like youth exchanges; 150 participants in the fourth online course will develop competences necessary in managing reverse culture shock and giving valorisation to their international experience after coming back in the sending country. In the long run, they can make use of their newly acquired knowledge and skills in future endeavours involving intercultural events and activities. The „E+ ROUND TRIP” platform, hosting innovative and practical online tools for orientation and preparation, useful in all kinds of projects devoted to working with youth (youth exchanges, EUROPEAN VOLUNTEERING ) will also function as database for future actions. This online platform will use participatory approaches and ICT-based methodologies to create or improve processes of recognition and validation of competences of young people. Our initiative is planning to address an innovative aspect which is not very frequently used at present, online training courses to prepare participants before and/or after their international experience abroad: European volunteers, participants in youth exchanges, trainings, who go abroad to study, repatriates etc. In addition, the open license products of the project, with descriptive and graphic parts available online and some offline features, will become an inspirational, good practice guide for NGOs all over Europe and the world in preparation and development of intercultural projects under the Erasmus plus programme.
This project is the third part of a trilogy which started with “The suitcase, the map and the voyage of a youth worker” – a project that achieved great results in terms of indicators – continued with “Online Training Courses for E+ Youth Workers” - another good practice project and has now reached a more modern, dynamic, committed and professional environment, taking the results to the next level and connecting them with young people as well. Our initiative planned to address an innovative aspect which was not very frequently used at the time: online training courses to prepare participants before and/or after their international experience abroad – European volunteers, participants in youth exchanges, training activities, studies abroad, repatriates etc. We started from the needs of organisations participating in a small research we had done in preparation for this project. The findings showed that the sending organisations needed a digital tool to conduct pre-departure training of high quality in volunteering projects. Another relevant aspect was the emphasis on preparations for youth exchanges. A flexible module and platform would help organisations prepare young people for participation in youth exchanges with essential and standardised preparation. The third set of needs was connected with the realities after short or long mobilities. Again, the structures involved were likely to use some tools or modules that young people could explore even when they were not from the same area as the sending organisation. Considering these needs, we have developed three innovative courses on the platform https://themobility.eu: - Pre-departure training in Volunteering activities – online course; - Online Training Course as a Preparation Tool for Young People in Youth Exchanges; - Successful re-entry - Rebuilding understanding and belonging – online course. Each online course is available in four languages: English, Romanian, Italian and German. In terms of developed competences, each course/module on the learning platform had main competences associated, i.e. by successfully completing modules, participants could develop/acquire certain competences. Three main objectives were set for the project: 1. Exploring an online pre-departure training designed for future European volunteers, by 150 young people; 2. Improving the preparation for potential future youth exchanges of 150 youngsters – participants in a dedicated online course; 3. Increasing the valorisation capabilities of 150 people - participants in the proposed online module and potential participants in experiences abroad; These initial targets were surpassed as we have reached the following indicators in terms of course completion: - Pre-departure training in Volunteering activities: 387 participants; - Preparation of participants in Youth exchanges: 402 participants; - Successful re-entry - Rebuilding understanding and belonging: 303 participants; Other relevant indicators are connected with the number of persons enrolled in the modules, regardless of their level of exploring the modules, allowing the possibility to choose how much to learn according to their own learning pace and targets. Therefore, our e-modules had the following numbers in terms of people being enrolled: - Pre-departure training in Volunteering activities: 185; - Preparation of participants in Youth exchanges: 180; - Successful re-entry - Rebuilding understanding and belonging: 172. Our platform displays various components addressing different learning styles: - Introductory assessment; - Presentation area; - Map/Mind map/Graph with the main aspects/topics to be considered for preparation; - Theoretical part for each chapter in the form of an e-book; - Short movies explaining the theory, making it more attractive; - Real-life examples emphasizing how new knowledge can be applied; - Minimum bibliography to consult – websites with text/video, talks, online free books etc. – providing links to resources to read/watch; - Missions/Tasks to be done in order to apply the theory of the module/chapter – supplementary work for the participant – to do research, to apply, to create, to transfer into practice what has been learnt; - Peer evaluation; - Treasure hunting system; - Special badges, created for this project and given for various achievements during the course, to encourage participation; - The feedback questionnaires; - Forum; - Final assessment – as part of the assessment and evaluation process; - Video games; - Other gamification elements - attractive visuals, unique design made for this project, stories, animations, level system, rankings, leader board, progress bar, competitions, route selection, crosswords games, etc. We planned to reach 10.000 visits on the website of the project, but we recorded 25.060 unique visitors with 30.955 visits, from people living in 150 countries.