The formal education system cannot meet the need that growing and fast developing world we currently live in has both in terms of employment and civil skills. Last October, The World Bank has released the new report with the key messages: -Schooling is not the same as learning. -Schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a great injustice. -There is nothing inevitable about low learning in low- and middle-income countries. On the other hand we have the non-formal learning, which has compliment the formal and actually has a decent place in the formal education system. Still, the skills acquired outside of the formal education and training system are often not documented or formally recognized. With this project we aim: 1. To create environment and int. network, where good practices are further developed and shared among the partnering countries and across Europe in the field of non-formal education happening in the formal education system (outside the regular curriculum) addressing and developing life skills that are critical for the personal and professional development of the young people in Europe, through developing youth workers, teachers and influencer in the community. 2. To identify which are the key competencies teachers should develop in order to be successful youth worker in the schools and be a driver for extracurricular activities and social work, that compliments and further develop the non-formal learning in the school. 3. To collect, structure and disseminate good practices in the field of non-formal education that support the school vision for development as a center for learning and personal development, where the non-formal learning have part. Online toolkit will be developed and distributed to the rest of the schools and organizations all partners are working with as well as be available for all others to promote the non-formal learning, its validation and necessity in order to develop key life skills in the today's young people. We will give the opportunity to 64 youth workers (also teachers) to further explore the non-formal learning, that happens in the school and strengthen their competencies and be role models for their colleges. These 64 will be the multipliers, motivators and inspiratory for at least 1 000 more, while working with more than 500 youngsters directly, providing them quality non-formal learning. Well-structured and diverse short term training activities, were developed and agreed with the 4 partners, which aim first to give space to hear and see good practices of the youth worker development and support in the schools, as well as stimulate a fruitful discussion and conclusions regarding the key lessons and preconditions that the non-formal learning need in order to happen in one school. The methodology is both based on the “The duke of Edinburgh’s international Award” framework, with 60 years of experience, working in 140 countries and the non-formal methods, that stimulate discussions, experiential learning and peer to peer learning. The impact of the direct participants is that they will be equipped with knowhow, specific approaches and real experience in the field of youth work that can be performed, resourced and facilitated in the schools. They will be high qualified youth workers, that can work with young people and support their personal development outside the regular school curriculum, based on the experience, dissemination activities and will contribute to the awareness for the youth work specifics and importance on local, regional and int. level. The 4 partners will built their organizational capacity and will have new methods and approaches in order to wider the program and reach even more young people offering them quality non-formal learning experience and validation of their skills and competencies gained through it. Even more they would have the infrastructure (tools, working youth workers) that will ensure their work in the field in the future. On international level the 4 countries will present the results within their national network, with other org-s and schools, as well as with all 140 countries, where the Award works, through internal social platforms, Regional meetings. The national youth org-s and school associations will be also used as channels to promote the results and the handbook. The longer term benefits can be listed as: - Raise the awareness that “Learning does not happen only in the classroom” and the teachers are good and reliable youth workers, that can address specific learning needs by the non-formal learning; - Standardise and share the good practices of the non-formal learning in the school system on national policy level in order to have their approval and resources in the future; - Create space for sharing and interaction for 4 organization (that will be a seed for more future initiatives and projects) with different experience, history and culture, but with common believes and values.
The formal education system cannot meet the need that the fast developing world we currently live in both in terms of employment and civil skills. The World Bank has released a report in 2018 (which was a base for this project) with the key messages: -Schooling is not the same as learning. -Schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a great injustice. -There is nothing inevitable about low learning in low- and middle-income countries. On the other hand there is the non-formal learning to compliment the formal education system but still, the skills acquired outside of the formal education and training system are often not documented or formally recognised. With this project we believe we succeeded to: 1. To create an environment and int. network where good practices are further developed and shared among the partnering countries and across Europe in the field of non-formal education happening in the formal education system (outside the regular curriculum) addressing and developing life skills that are critical for the personal and professional development of the young people in Europe, through developing youth workers, teachers in the community. 2. To identify which are the key competencies teachers should develop in order to be successful youth workers in the schools and be a driver for extracurricular activities and social work, that compliments and further develops the non-formal learning in the school. 3. To collect, structure and disseminate good practices in the field of non-formal education that support the school vision for development as a centre for learning and personal development, where the non-formal learning has part. An online handbook containing good practices of the non-formal learning that happens in the formal education system, was developed and distributed to schools in the network of the partners and organisations all partners are working with as well as is available for all others to promote the non-formal learning, its validation and necessity in order to develop key life skills in the today's young people. We have organised and delivered 4 short term training activities attended by 61 youth workers (also teachers), who have further explored the non-formal learning happening in the school and strengthen their competencies and motivate them to be role models for their colleagues. These 61 teachers-youth workers have been multipliers, motivators and inspiration for at least 1 000 more, while working with more than 500 youngsters directly, providing them quality non-formal learning. Well-structured and diverse short term training activities were developed and agreed with the 4 partners, which aimed first to give space to hear and see good practices of the youth workers development and support in the schools, as well as stimulate a fruitful discussion regarding the key lessons and preconditions that the non-formal learning need in order to happen in one school. The methodology was both based on the “The Duke of Edinburgh’s international Award” framework, with 60 years of experience, working in 130 countries and the non-formal methods which stimulate discussions, experiential and peer to peer learning. The impact of the direct participants was that they were equipped with knowhow, specific approaches and real experience in the field of youth work that can be performed, resourced and facilitated in the schools. They are better qualified youth workers, that can work with young people and support their personal development outside the regular school curriculum, based on the experience, dissemination activities and have contributed to the awareness for the youth work specifics and importance on local, regional and int. level. The 4 partners have built their org. capacity and now have new methods and approaches in order to widen the program and reach even more young people offering quality non-formal learning experience and validation of skills and competencies gained through it. Even more they have the infrastructure (tools, working youth workers) that will ensure their work in the field in the future. On international level the 4 partners have presented the results within their national network, with other org-s and schools, as well as with all 130 countries, where the Award works, through internal social platforms, regional and online meetings. The longer term benefits can be listed as: - Raise the awareness that “Learning does not happen only in the classroom” and the teachers are good and reliable youth workers, that can address specific learning needs by the non-formal learning; - Standardise and working good practices of the non-formal learning in the school system on national policy level in order to have their approval and resources in the future; - Created space for sharing and interaction for 4 organisation that are a great base for more future initiatives and projects, with different experience, history and culture, but with common beliefs and values.