International Youth Leadership Seminar (IYLS)

The International Youth Leadership Seminar is a seven day seminar where you develop skills in youth leadership, facilitation, project management, communication, group dynamics, conflict resolution, motivation and empowerment. Your participation in the seminar will qualify you to lead and manage international volunteer groups, international work camps and campaign activities in an NGO setting. Why? The seminar is based on 30 years of experience with volunteer work in an international setting – political campaigning, awareness-raising projects, work-camps and organizational work. It is made by activism, for activism! Therefor it is a seminar where you strengthen the social and intercultural competencies you need to lead a diverse group. You gain tools and knowledge that can be integrated in your daily activities – education, job or organization involvement. And the best part - you will learn to lead by leading other participants during the seminar! How? All topics and tools introduced at the course are focused on how to act local with a global mindset. This means that the tools throughout the seminar are focused on how to lead other people to do social change, which matters locally and globally. The seminar focuses on the following topics and tools: • Intercultural cooperation • Communication • Motivation • Facilitation and idea generation • Group dynamics • Conflict management • Project management Educational principles: The seminar relates all topics and tools to the participants own praxis. This is done through the following experience based learning principles: •Non-formal education– not academic lectures, but practical exercises, group-work and games with a purpose. •Experience-based learning – we all have experience with leadership from our own lives and the seminar activates and builds on this experience. Moreover, we practice learning-by-doing throughout the seminar. •Active participation – you are expected to participate and share your experiences. •Fun – the seminar is going to be hard-working, playful, serious & fun - learning together with 50 like-minded participants from all over the world is never boring! The educational principles and the tools and content will together show you have to be a democratic leader, and prepare you to go out and make social change happen!