Started its dynamic and interesting activities on the 21st of August by giving the young leaders from different countries a chance to get to know each other. On the first day of the project the participants played different name games and did a lot of ice breaker activities in order to know each others names and build a friendship. The games were really successful and at the end of the day, participants felt more comfortable and knew almost all the names of their new friends. Working together as a team brought us big success, however for the first time it was not easy to adopt because sometimes we had different opinions. So the next task was dividing responsibilities and finding out the things like “Facilities to spend free time together”or “Say hello in different languages”and so on. All was done successful and was downloaded into facebook group. As the day was coming to the end we made reflection groups and one member(mummy)was representing us by listening and then explaining the things positive or negative to the organisers.
The second day of the project started with more serious topic”Youth Unemployment in Europe and its consequences”. In this activity participants reported an unemployment rate in their countries and did successful presentations and answered question about the issues. The second part of the day was dedicated to skill boxes of the future in 2 parts. The most interesting part was about 10 top skills in demand in 2020. Online career websites were presented to us. We learnt how to adjust actions in relation to others and how to be flexible to our co workers.
The 3rd day was so informative and full of new emotions and insides. The main part of the day was presentations about unemployment rate, its reasons and consequences. During this part all participants from 9 countries were presenting the economical situation in their countries. During team-working part participants have designed posters, where they were presenting 3 main factors about a job seeker, such as their values, knowledge and skills. This work was done on each country basis, so the picture in each country was quite clear. Then participants received information about most demanded skills in 2020 in order to become more skillful and ready for the upcoming challenges. This information was based on reports of Davos economical forum, which means that it is reliable and shows upcoming tendencies.
The fourth day of training course brought us a lot of emotions. First of all it was 24th of August – the Independence Day of Ukraine. The air was full of holiday mood, a lot of people in national embroidered dresses and shirts.
The first morning session was dedicated to the term “coaching”, all of us tried to understand what it means to be a coach. What specific features should coach have? We clarified the difference between coach and mentor. The second session brought us an unexpected task: to make reflection of our skills, to draw “Mirror of my skill”. Some of us were very creative and real artists in painting)) Despite the fact that it was rather entertaining activity it had deep sense. It was not too easy to reveal all skill you have, but it was more difficult to understand which one you should improve. Everybody tried to find his answers on important questions “What is a role of a coach?”, “Why to be a coach?”, “What experience of coaching you already have?” That was hard work but we all tried to do our best.
In the afternoon we had really great entertainment – Sumy city game. It was great to know more and more about city with every next question or task. We read the poem of great Ukrainian poet Shevchenko: it was not easy but we managed. We even found migrants to talk with and the first cinema in city, made videos and interviews with locals, asking about the history of city. For sure, nobody will forget this day as we had a lot of great pictures and emotions!
The 25th of August was a day of trust. We tried to trust each other, trust a people whom we knew only 5 days. During first few minutes, it was not easy, but then we were ready to fall and be caught with no fear. We were improving skills on trust building since it is an important stage in coaching process. We also had opportunity to act as coachee and a coach – great experience. This day was full of new knowledge on learning needs and competences, building relations. But the evening was even more marvelous. We had intercultural night! International dishes, drinks, our own Wikipedia on participated countries, Italian gestures, German song and of course dances – indeed, we are cool dancers)). Nobody will forget Dances of Spain, Georgia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Ukrainian hopak
6th day was also about affective coaching, in particular, participants learnt how to create non-violent environment and manage comflicts with the help of grow model. The last session was about the importance of evaluation and well managed feedbacks.
Last day was dedicated to future plans and projects of community groups. Each of them represented their own ways how they will use this knowledge and skills they took from this project to help young people with migarnt background/fewer opportunities to integrate in the society. Last sessions were about working on Youthpasses and final evaluation of the course. In the evening organizers managed very emotional and unforgettable farewell night for participants.