CONNECTION: Youth worker on European Solidarity Corps - develop skills and increase the quality of projects

Have you ever thought about further developing your youth worker skills and increasing the quality of your projects?

" CONNECTION – Youth Worker on ESC" is a Training Course (TC) that aims to improve the quality of European Solidarity Corps (ESC) projects and support youth workers in the development of key skills involved in the construction, development, and evaluation of projects. It will be a unique opportunity to perform a self-assessment of skills, and to reinvent ourselves, to improve our competencies and the quality of the projects.

In a world of constant change, youth workers need to reinvent themselves to improve their work with young people.

At a time when the role of the youth worker is being discussed across Europe, where weaknesses and potential are being assessed, it is evident that their role alongside the youth is being valued.

With new challenges brought by the European Solidarity Corps Programme (ESC), a crucial factor will be the development of competences for youth workers who accompany and support all the activities in the ESC. To improve the quality of projects and learning processes, the development of competencies allows a better understanding of the program and its potentialities, which may have a greater impact on organizations, communities, participants, and agencies.

This course, based on the ETS competence model for youth workers to work internationally, provides a framework for the skills that youth workers have to develop in order to be able to monitor and develop their work with young people.

https://www.salto-youth.net/rc/training-and-cooperation/tc-rc-nanetworktcs/youthworkers-competence-model/

You can find in this model eight competence areas for youth workers, and in this model "it is essential that there needs to be a core framework of quality standards for youth work responsive to national contexts, including competence models for youth workers, and accreditation systems for prior experience and learning […]".

The course will provide you with opportunities to meet peer youth workers and discuss questions around self-assessment, the content of competencies, and ways you can develop them further on and increase the quality of your projects. 

Main objective:

• aims aims to discover and support the competences development of youth workers at the European Solidarity Corps Programme through the ETS competence model for youth workers, increasing the quality of the projects.

Specific Objectives:

• to understand the role of youth worker in European Solidarity Corps programme;
• to analyze the ETS competence model for youth workers;
• to explore the use of the competences of youth worker (based on ETS Competence Model for Youth Worker) into the European Solidarity Corps;
• to Increase the quality of European Solidarity Corps projects through recognition of the Youth Worker and the competences of ETS competence model.

Target group / Participants profile:

• Youth workers; Trainers; Youth leaders; Youth project managers; Volunteering mentors and Youth coaches;

• Be or have been involve in European Solidarity Corps and/or Erasmus + Youth Action programme(s);

• Have some knowledge about the different steps in projects (Application form, development, management).

• Be available to attend the entire course (5, 6 and 7 May 2021);

• Be at least 18 years old;

• Be able to use English as working language.

Methodology & Technical Requirements:

The programmeconsists of interactive sessions, presentations, and exploration of the topic of training, using different online tools. The methodology will make it possible to create a safe environment for learning and sharing experiences. The online sessions will be based on non-formal education methodologies, will be divided between plenary sessions and facilitation work in small groups. Participants are expected to take part in all training and to contribute their opinions and experience.

Online Training technical requirements: computer with camera and microphone and good internet connection.

The platforms to be used during the course are:

• ZOOM https://zoom.us/ (communication tool for Synchronous sessions) and canvas.net (platform for hosting the course, and supporting the learning process); Jamboard, Mentimeter; Padlet; CANVA; Miro; WhatsApp; Wordwall.