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Boomerang

2020-3-EL02-KA105-0064702020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: EL|BG|IT|CZ|ES|RO|HR|LV · Grant: €28,095
Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemploymentNew innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training coursesYouth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Objectives

Due to the way formal education is usually done, there is a stigma in the head of young people (which is being created from the basic schools) that education/learning is “boring”, “annoying”, “hard”, “something I have to do even though I don't want to”. What's more, it is only pre-level of what follows: work. Job is seen as something “I have to have” to earn money and be able to live. Finding a satisfactory job still remains to be one of the biggest challenges for youth. Many of them find not fulfilling employment, or are unemployed. And the COVID situation is influencing the economy, labor market, and lifestyle badly in the last months. Youngsters are often demotivated by life, uninterested in taking an active part in a society, or doing activities that are not directly connected to the fun. And fun is – due to peer pressure – often perceived as “hanging-out”, playing video games, drinking, smoking, etc. Youths are missing perspectives because they are led from childhood to do things because they “have to”, not because they “want to”. Yet, learning is an integral part of our being and it can be a lot of fun (the smallest kids are learning mainly through playing). It was also proved that the most effective and productive workers are happy people who are motivated from the inside (because they like or believe in what they are doing), not from the outside (money and benefits). One of the possible ways to bring fun back to learning and to work is gamification – a field which is taking the elements of gaming and applying them in different contexts (mainly marketing, sales, and productivity, but it can be used also for learning and any other area). Our original plan was to make 2 activities. First activity was a training course about gamification for youth workers. Second activity was a youth exchange about employability through games. National agency asked us to implement only the 2nd phase therefore we had to adjust the original project accordingly. Our VISION was to bring happiness into the everyday life of youths. Our GOAL was to increase the employability of the youth and switch their mindset towards education and work (volunteering) as something pleasant. Our OBJECTIVES were: A) To increase the mobility of 40 people (32 youngsters + 8 youth workers) where at least 50 % of youngsters (16) will have fewer opportunities. B) To improve and develop personal and professional competences of participants, mainly creativity, sense of initiative, solution-oriented mindset, team-work skills, learning to learn, communication skills for youth. C) To increase the employability of participating youth D) To create a series of educational games focused on a topic of employability which is answering the needs of participating youth worker’s target groups. E) To create and disseminate a GAME BOOKLET with all education games created during the project. F) To implement 8 local activities - educational games from the GAME BOOKLET. Project was linked to the following objectives of the Erasmus+ program in KA105. It was: • improving the level of key competencies and skills of young people, including those with fewer opportunities. • promoting the labor market. • increasing learning mobility opportunities for young people, those active in youth work or youth organizations, and youth leaders. • strengthening links between the youth field and the labor market. It was answering priorities of Greek NA by: • targeting young people with fewer opportunities, especially NEETs, and giving them the opportunity to raise their skills; • creating an opportunity for active engagement in the local community by implementing 8 local actions; • enhancing entrepreneurship skills thereby increasing employment opportunities by making 32 young people more employable.

Project partners (8)