Diary
‘This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
22.06.2016
Dear diary, Sorry I’ve been missing these days, but I got my READY.STEADY.GO project approved and I was quite busy. Here you have the idea of the project: “ Ready to learn , steady to understand , Go for a job “ is a youth exchange that will happen in 12-21 june 2016 in Busteni ,Romania with 45 participants from 8 countries : Cyprus,Latvia,Lithuania,Macedonia,Poland,Spain,Turkey,Romania and will include 18 youngsters with fewer opportunities ( unemployed and poor ) The context is economical crisis in Europe with a great rate of unemployment that among youngsters is over 22 %,youngsters have difficulties in preparing for getting a job and to create an attractive portfolio. The aim of the project is to increase employability among youngsters 18-25 old through efficient solutions for accesing jobs according to their personal development. Proposed objectives are : -to offer to 36 youngsters of 18-25 years old and 9 group leaders from 8 european countries a common space to reflect on their future ,to exchange good practices and for cultural dialogue and increase youth cooperation -to identify the most appropriate styles and methods of learning and to prepare youngsters to choose the desired job -to assimilate and aware the key competences for getting a job and to understand their importance in accesing a job based on their competemces and personal development -to promote through nonformal education creative solutions to enrich job portfolio The activities forseen are for preparation,introduction and getting to know eachother,trust and team building,presentation of participants and organizations,introduction of Erasmus + programme and youthpass certificate,cultural and study visits in surroundings and in Brasov,intercultural evenings,thematic and creative workshops,daily ,midterm and final reflection-evaluations,dissemination and exploitation of results.Besides there will be transversal activities for visibility,management and monitorizing. The methodology will be based on nonformal education and will consist in games ,presentations,debates,role plays and simulations,media and video . Final results will be conclusions from workshops gathered in a “Decalogue “ , 7 promo videoclips for getting a job , a facebook page and a DVD that will contain results and informative and educational matherials. The impact of the project will be at youngsters’ level by new developed competences, especially for getting a job ,a better understanding of cultural diversity and stimulation of active participation .Thematic they will assimilate new tools to prepare for getting a job and how to present a more attarctive job portfolio.At partners’ and local communities level the impact will be felt by presence of more trained youngsters and more willing to solve communities problems and by getting new tools and methods to promote employability. Sustianability of project and partnership will be provided by communication between partners ,by a common dissemination and exploitation plan and by writing new application in Erasmus + programme.
On the 12th of June, I started receiving my guests. Most of them came by plane, except Macedonia that arrived by train and Lithuania that came by car. Lithuanians got a little bit lost, but anyway found the right way here. After arriving most of participants we had a little one introduction evening to get known. On the second day (June 13th) I organized some name games to help participants to get know each other – like find the owner of the badge, draw a portrait and “human bingo”. Once we met each other, I presented the rules of the projects to the participants by using images rather than just text so that I caught their attention. Later I let them to enjoy their time in Busteni city by visiting local Castle Cantacuzino. After excursion project brought into the spotlight the organizations poncho fashion show. Split into their national groups, Turkey, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Macedonia, Spain and Cyprus used their imagination to present the organizations they represent. The aim of this activity was to promote team work and give everyone the chance to “shine” by using non-formal ways rather than PowerPoint and the usual presentations. The choice of the fashion show made all the participants more comfortable by breaking the cultural barriers.
The end of the activity found everyone more at ease, making them more comfortable when it came to asking questions and requesting help. There was the first Intercultural evening today as well, but I come back to it a little bit later.
On Tuesday June 14th, for the workshop about unemployment I divided participants into five groups. Each group had to create a definition of unemployment, to check out for unemployment rate in their countries, and to try to find solutions for decreasing unemployment. Here they also spoke about the “brain drain� problem. They found out that there is a big difference between unemployment in general and unemployment among youngsters. For example, in Spain general unemployment rate is about 20%, while unemployment between youngsters is even 45%.
Next it was a nice team building activity named “Egg–xercise�. I have given them a task which combines teamwork and creativity. They had to construct a device with limited materials to protect an egg. Each group finished their machine and had to test it by throwing it from the balcony. Only one group managed to save the egg with just some small cracks. So from the end of this task we have acquired teamwork and thinking out of the box. With the limitation of materials participants had to think other possible ideas for the machine.
As a next activity I asked the participants to make some sketches about stereotypes of their countries. It turned out that we all have similar stereotypes and we discussed about the possible solutions given.
Wednesday, June 15th began with some trusting games and after them I wanted participants to work both fun and serious. First they started with a more serious workshop - World coffee. The idea was to create four “café” where participants were discussing about formal, non-formal and informal education.
One of “café” was “Non-formal vs. Formal education”. In this café my participants found out a lot of similarities and differences between both education forms, so they made several conclusions.
In the second was discussion about volunteering as loosing time, because of its unimportance for education. All of the participants disagreed with this statement and came up with many positive arguments of volunteering. As a conclusion the sentence was over made in “Volunteering is investing time as it’s important for education”.
In another one we discussed some advantages and disadvantages of social networks concerning learning. The result of cafĂŠ was a poster look alike Facebook page with positive and negative timelines and feedbacks as well.
The last cafĂŠ was about what participants would like to change in formal educational system. Here they spoke about problems in schools, high-schools and at universities. They found out that each of them can name several issues of their formal educational systems.
Next workshop emphasized the importance of knowing yourself and more specifically, being aware of your learning style. I chose to use the Honey and Mumford test which consisted of 40 statements that had to be evaluated in 30 minutes. Because I love my participants I chose the short version of the test and not the one with 80 questions.
The answers revealed which learning style characterized each person, whether they were activists, theorists, pragmatists or reflectors. Out of all participants, it came as a surprise that the majority of people belonged to the activist group, followed by reflectors, pragmatists and theorists. Here is if you want to have an idea what each term means:
1. Activist – Activists are those people who learn by doing. They need to get their hands dirty, to dive in with both feet first. Have an open minded approach to learning involving themselves fully and without bias in new experiences. Activists are good at puzzles, brainstorming and role-play.
2. Theorist – These learners like to understand the theory behind the actions. They need models, concepts and facts in order to engage in the learning process. Prefer to analyze and synthesize, drawing new information into a systematic and logical theory. They are good at applying theories, stories and statistics.
3. Pragmatist – These people need to be able to see how to put the learning into practice in the real world. Abstract concepts and games are of limited use unless they can see a way to put the ideas into actions and their lives. Experimenters, trying out new ideas, theories and techniques to see if they work.
4. Reflectors – These people learn by observing and thinking about what happened. They may avoid leaping in and prefer to stand back and view experiences from a number of different perspectives, collecting data and taking the time to work towards an appropriate conclusion. They prefer to observe activities, get feedback from others and coach.
After that the participants had another creative workshop – fish market. All groups were very creative, so we had an excellent market!
Each group created a fish where they wrote some ideas for future projects. The one which won was about being healthy and practicing sports. It is supposed to be carried out in Ayia Napa and it would be called “Don’t be lazy, ‘bee’ healthy and crazy”.
As this was one serious working day, my participants had one more thing to do – they made sketches about 8 of key competences.
COMMUNICATION IN THE MOTHER TONGUE Communication is the skill to understand and express ideas, facts and feelings. Communication is more than just words and language....it also has to do with the way you talk to people including your body language.
COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES Communication is the skill to understand and express ideas, facts and feelings with people who think, talk and act differently. Communicating in another language often has a lot to do with overcoming the fear of making mistakes.
MATHEMATICAL COMPETENCE AND BASIC COMPETENCES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Technical matters can be things like maintaining or repairing bicycles, regulating electric connections of computer or music equipment, using photo or video cameras, using domestic equipment, tools, building some things, etc.
DIGITAL COMPETENCE Digital competences have to do with when you learn to handle the computer, for example how to work with programs.
LEARNING TO LEARN Everybody learns every moment of the day. One can learn in various ways, like by talking to others, or by listening, by searching for information or by attending a workshop.
How can you improve it? You can develop this competence by making yourself more aware of your own way of learning.
SOCIAL AND CIVIC COMPETENCES This has to do with how people behave with others and how they interact in many different contexts. It implies cooperation, helping others and following rules and agreements. It is also related to the way we express our opinions, and how you manage with criticism.
SENSE OF INITIATIVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP This has to do with entrepreneurship and initiative. It is putting ideas into action, realizing your dreams and wishes and not waiting ‘til others do it for you (or not).
CULTURAL AWARENESS AND EXPRESSION The competence ‘cultural awareness and expression' has to do with the way we appreciate our own and other cultures, in your town, in your region, your country, Europe, and the whole world. It also has to do with how we can express our emotions, experiences and feelings in a creative way through media or art forms. If you think about it, you will come up with some ways to develop this competence. We finished the day with the 2nd International evening, but I’ll tell about it later.
On Thursday, 16th June after couple energizers I prepared the participants city bound with several tasks, like to take individual photos at places they would like to work, prepare a video with the song or dance and one more video with movie promotion.
After getting back groups got a task to prepare a CV. They could choose if it’s serious or funny.
They saw a presentation about how we they created a CV and task was to make them to organise in 6 groups a different kind of CV. Everyone was very exhausted from hiking so we haven’t presented it but was also a good way of learning and imagining how a CV should be done.
Five basic principles for a good CV 1. Concentrate on the essentials 2. be clear and concise 3. Always adapt your CV to suit the post you are applying for 4. Pay attention to the presentation of your CV 5. Check your CV once you have filled it in
17th June morning was begun with an energizer. Right after it participants had to present work interviews in pairs. We start the programme with job interviews. Each one had to pick a piece of small paper and categorise themselves to be employers or employees. The whole process was secret. We had different kind of offered jobs like stripper in red light district or astronaut for NASA. It was funny but at the same time was challenging for participants to prepare for their positions. Also they have learned about self-confidence and more tips about interviews.
Relax. I will be very gentle..
10 tips to have a successful job interview 1. be self - confident 2. Take your space 3. Pay attention to your body language 4. Search for information about the company 5. Ask questions about the company 6. Don’t focus only on salary, take into consideration other conditions such as health care, insurance etc. 7. Don’t mention your failures 8. Take time to prepare your answers 9. Try to be relaxed 10. be happy and smiling all the time
The city bound activity was every interesting and productive. There were 5 groups and they had a few tasks to do.
Going around and finding a place where you would like to work was not that easy even if it was just to make a selfie. It was interesting, we were joking and having fun, the fruits we bought were very refreshing and perfect thing for such sunny day. Some of the groups were a little lost ,but Romanian people are very kind, so they helped them find the way. Little bit late, but they made it. ď Š So after all of the groups were together, we started our journey to the mountains, to see the waterfall.
This was a big challenge for everybody. Because of the rain in the previous days, the road was very, very muddy so we had to walk in groups and help each other. We have reached the waterfall and everyone was amazed. We took pictures and selfies and enjoy the nature.
As soon as participants finished the interviews, the main work got started – to create the end products: videos (14 in general) and a decalogue.
As I said before, now I’m going to talk about some funny activities and experiences of the exchange. To begin with, I wanted them to show traditions of their cultures.
During the week we had two intergalactical evenings. In the INTERGALACTIC PARTYS each country were presented by some other countries in many different ways.. After that, they offered us some typical products and taught us many typical dances from each of them.We had a lot of fun, singing, dancing and enjoy.
The ending of a wonderful series of intergalactic evenings found me preparing the Romanian traditional evening. I gave everyone the chance to taste typical dishes like mici, sunca, mamaliga and of course, tuica. I wanted my participants to have the chance to see from the beginning how a traditional barbeque is done and how to combine mamaliguta with sarmale. As I expected no one disappointed me; we all did justice to the typical way a Romanian dinner takes place: loads of foods that never stop coming, talking and ending a night with a blast by dancing and enjoying Romanian music.
Last but don’t least we have fun part!!! Mud party!!
Someone got dirty‌but found a natural solution of cleaning
Aaaaa aaaa an a a a aaaaaaaaa!! Tarzaaaan the king of jungle! The waterfall?!
And of course, sometimes we got bored :D
Hey, it’s normal to have fears and expectations as well when we come into a new environment! Also my participants had their own fears and expectations after coming to Busteni and they shared with them as I asked to do it. I saw that mostly fears were quite similar – like language barrier, integration problems, awareness of being not involved in work processes, unexpected situations and weather forecast as well. Joining to new group or project always includes a lot of expectations. My participants mentioned several of them - such as meeting new people, learning and improving language skills, to find out more about Romanian culture, to learn new skills and also share experience and to get a new one. We used some methods to check our personal and team development ,such as - “Learning tree” and “Midterm darts”. We did a god job! Now I have to finish this and get ready for another project. Hope that this will not be the last time we see each other
In this diary I’ve highlited in red and bolded the most important findings and aspect that my participants have discussed and learnt. As I have said many times, the most important thing is the learning process, and it has been successful for all of them.