Soft skills for youth workers

ERASMUS +, KA1, YOUTH

SOFT SKILLS FOR YOUTH WORKERS training course

02 - 10.12.2019 ZAKOPANE, POLAND

PUBLICATION The material is based on the statements, ideas and reflections of the participants and is the result of workshop sessions.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The project "Soft skills for youth workers� was designed as training which was planned to help youth workers, educators, volunteers coming from partner organisations with their daily work with young people, and primarily to teach them or develop their soft skills and provide them with the methods and tools, how to transmit their knowledge about soft skills to young people with whom they work .

Nowadays, youth workers are often the only people who care about the development of soft skills among young people with whom they work with. Youth work focuses on the holistic development of young people - it develops the knowledge, skills and attitudes of young people. At the same time, most employers consider soft skills as a very important factor when hiring new employees, but often they indicate that formal education does not ensure adequate development of soft competences among young people.

The main aim of the project was to equip youth workers coming from partner organisations with the soft skills, such as effective communication, time management, public speaking, creativity, project management and to inspire them to make the usage of these skills in designing and implementing activities for youth.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJEC WERE: - to define a role of soft skills in youth work - to work on how to teach soft skills to youth with the youth workers are working with - to create tools which help young people to develop their communication, time management, public speaking, creativity, project management skills - to boost self-confidence, entrepreneurial and proactive attitudes of youth workers - to create a safe space for participants to speak about their motivations and the challenges which they face in their daily work with young people and brainstorm about solutions.

In the project took part 26 participants coming from 12 countries: Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Spain, Latvia, Portugal, Macedonia, Turkey, Hungary, Italy, Greece. The training was held in Zakopane, Poland in the dates: 2-10 December 2019.

LEARNING PROCESS Our learning process, after breaking the ice and getting to know each other better has started with completing our knowledge about Erasmus+ programms. In groups we were sharing about experience with the projects and creating answers for questions like 'What is youth exchange?', 'How to get invloved?'

ERASMUS+

We were also discussing about differences between non-formal, formal and informal education. On the example of 'Ballons' game', where participants are having ballons and pins and their task is to keep their balloon through next 1 minute, participants could learn what is experiential learning. Trainers presented principles of non-formal education.

YOUTH WORK & SOFT SKILLS Another task was to work in groups and discuss about topics like - What is youth work and who is youth worker? What is formal recognition of youth work in your country?

What are soft skills? What is a recognition of soft skills? What is self-directed learning?

Groups had 45 minutes to prepare a presentations about the topics. After preparing in groups participants were sharing on plenary effects of their work. There was also discussion about differences between being youth worker and trainer, also what we can name as a soft skill - can it be emotional intelligence?

From the flipchart above we can read that for youth work is 'all kind of activities with, for or by young people' and is 'out-of-school education'. Our participants agreed that it is based on participatory, learner-centred methods as learning by doing and reflecting, and it uses diversity as a positive tool in matter of co-existence and co-work.

Youth work is also value-driven. Main values are: linked to personal development (autonomy, ciritical thinking, openness, curiosity, creativity); linked to social development (communication, participation, democratic citizenship); ethical values (human rights, intercultural learning and dialogue, peace/non-violence, gender equality, inter-generational dialogue.

Participants used an example of football - if the focus is just on it: winning, practicing skills, then it is not youth work. But if we will use football as a tool to learn about e.g. social and emotional development of youth, it can be related to youth work.

On the flipchart created by participants who were researching about soft skills we can see a list of soft skills that are most popular/requiered nowadays.

Among them are: emotional intelligence, responsibility, work ethic, leadership skills, organisation, rechnology literacy, flexibility, productivity.

There are also 4 important soft skills to keep in mind: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity,

COMMUNICATION We watched 17-minutes video from Marshall Rosenberg’s workshop where he’s explaining basics of non-violent communication. After the video participants were asked about what caught their attention in it, some people said about meaning of words that can be different to people, some about definition of ‘love’. Participants were wondering also about daily situations where nvc can be used. The trainer presented assumptions of NVC concept.

We learned about what blocks compassion: moralistic judgments, denial of responsibility, demands and deserce. Also we get to 4 components of nonviolent communicates.

OBSERVATIONS

FEELINGS

NEEDS

REQUEST

PROFESSIONAL STORIES Participants were encouraged to share in groups some stories from their professional life when they had to handle difficult situation. Each group was picking one story which was suppose to perform in role-playing way. Stories were about e.g. drunk and aggressive teenagers who didn't want to leave Youth Centre, unfair behaviour of an arbitrator during public speaking contest, bored kids during extra math class and naughty children in Sunday school, who are missing their parents. Each group was presenting their story, and the rest of participants were discussing what could be said or done different to solve this situation. Volunteers could also join the scene and act protagonist role in their way.

SELF-CONFIDENCE We were discussing in groups about questions like - what is self-confidence according to you? Are you self-confident? Does it help in life? In what way?

For some participants self-confidence appear as one of the most important soft skill, someone else said it’s something you can find inside of you, but you need to have supportive people around to let it rise. Other person said it’s about being sure about yourself - to like and to love yourself. Some other commented that it is as two wars that each human is having - war with yourself: what you think about yourself, and another war - what others think about you. Self-confidence is about fighting in those wars. Conclusion of other person was that finding your ‘way’ helps to get self confidence.

There was also a short discussion about differences between self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you have a low self esteem, but be self confident? Some people commented that maybe it’s connected with your skills - if you feel confident about some skill, but not having self-esteem in general.

We had also a task to draw individually a circle splitted to 8 triangles. Each triangle was supposed to represtent different aspects of each life and participants were filling triangles as much, as they feel confident and satisfy in those aspects. Next, we were sharing about our circles in pairs As participants were summarizing this activity, it helped to understand what's important now for them in life now and where there are areas to care about and work on more.

Participants were also encouraged to think about activities for youth which could help to arise self-confidence in young people. Some of them thought about whole program of a week project that would be completely focused on self-confidence boosting, some others came up with idea of after-school activities and role-playing.

Another idea was an activity in a circle, where everybody is having a piece of paper which is going from one person to another, so everybody can write down a compliment to the owner of a paper. One group invented an activity based on repeating movements in a group which is rotating around after the volunteers on different sides, who are becoming a 'leaders' for a moment with their movements.

PUBLIC SPEAKING There was a session fully prepared and led by Macedonian participant Emilja, who is experienced in topic of public speaking. Emilija was talking about the importance of first impression and catching attention of the public, building their interest in the topic, involving them and then making some action which will lead to emotional and touching ending. There were also some tips how to make one’s speech original, as using sarcasm, using different intonation etc.

Next there was a sharing about common fears we have when it comes to public speaking. Each participant was joining to the centre of the room with his/her own fear elaborated. Emilija showed a technique of accepting anxious thoughs and letting them go by saying 'thank you, bye'. At the end there were 3 groups and each of them had to find some song lyrics to perform in one of three ways - focusing on intonation, emotions, or combination of those factors. Participants were performing prepared versions.

CREATIVITY The trainer asked participants to draw individually 30 circles on a piece of paper.

Participants had a task to fill those circles with anything in time of 1 minute. Then volunteers were sharing how did they filled their circles, and trainer explained what different styles can mean. That was the introduction to the topic of creativity, which consists different aspects like fluency, flexibility and originality.

Another activity was that participants were divided to groups and each group had an item that is not useful anymore like floppy disc, walkman or typewriter. The task was to prepare a commercial that would make this thing attractive again. Participants prepared different presentations using methods of role-playing or video making.

In order to learn how to use our creativity in youth work, the trainer proposed another activity*, There was a table with categories as 'topic', 'target group, 'method', 'item'.

Participants were giving suggestions what to put in table to each category, so there were 6 verses in each.

By using a dice, the trainer made a random combination of proposed blocks.

So e.g. the final task to work in groups on was to invent an activity which will be about 'cooperation/teamwork', with target group as 'minorities', in form of 'drama' and with use of 'projector'.

Participants had a while to discuss their ideas and then they were sharing on plennary.

An interesting idea for combination which mentioned, was a shadow theatre to perform in groups (cooperation needed), possible to run with using light of projector, and based on personal stories of participants. *Activity inspired by an excersise presented by Rafał Żak on a confrence Forum Edukacji Dorosłych in 2018

TIME MANAGMENT We were discussing about the topic of time managment on plenary, sharing our own best practices and tools which can be useful in daily life. It led to creating a list of time managment tips collected during discussion.

On the list we can see tips as: - write down every task you have and set a date to do it - write down Most Important Tasks (MIT) and start your day from doing them - reflect on your day (evenings) - turn off notifications - POMODORO technique - check your e-mail 2 times per day (e.g. 12:0013:00; 16:00-17:00) -accountability partner

- one thing at given time -> full focus - change 'I have to' into 'I want' - plan max 60% of your day - recognise your time wasters - 2 minutes rule - distinguish projects from tasks We also learned about GTD - Getting Things Done method which is described in the book of David Allen and also about some others interesting titles which might be helpful in finding our own way to having control on a schedule. We also got to know some useful online tools which can be helpful not only in managing our daily time and tasks, but also in professional work, as Asana, Slack, Trello etc.

Another useful tool we learned about was Eisenhower Matrix model, which can be helpful in prioritizing tasks during work on complexed projects. According to the model there are categories as 'urgent' and 'not urgent' tasks, and also 'important' and 'not important' tasks. The priority have tasks which are both 'urgent' and 'important'. source: https://www.epiclevelyou.com/blog/eisenhower

WORLD CAFE METHOD Participants were splitted to 4 groups and each of them had one host. Participants were discussing about 4 topics, 10 minutes each, and moving from one topic to another, only host stayed to write down points and present previous input to next group.

Topics which were discussed were:

Characteristics of proactive person Is proactive always good? If yes why, if not why (+ in which context) What challenges youth work & youth workers face when it comes to youg people’s involvment What makes young people involved in learning process

Characteristics of proactive person leader decisive/decided to be willing to move progress resistence/persistence determination experience taking initiative process information in an efficient way goal oriented assertive

motivation self confident good observer taking responsibility thinking out of the box creative focused maybe stressed being aware of risks open-minded empathy and social skills

You can be proactive in: personal life (empathy, social skills) work life (experience, good oriented, take initiative) sports life (team work skills, motivation, persistence) hobbies (time managment skills, decisive, good observation) academic life (time managment skills, progress, determination)

Is proactive always good? Why yes/no? When, in which contexts?

Definition: being prepared in advance, doing things without being asked to YES at work at school non-formal education it always pays back self-development better organisation it helps to prepare everything in your life plan ahead going forward in life good energy to solve problems it's easier to solve big problems saves time avoiding failures

NO you can't always be in control taking rest people around you start expecting and putting pressure on you it takes alot of time and energy nothing is always good creativity killer leads to overthinkig risk of burnout lack of spontanity in some situations phobias important for proactive personbut destructive to others important adaptation and flexibility be ractive not proactive selfish? curiosity vs. fear

What challenges youth work & youth workers face when it comes to young people's involvment? treating youngsters equally paying equal attention to everyone adjusting activities and methods to different approaches (way of learning, moving, reading) -> keeping attention language barrier (dialect, rural area, English) one question -> different answers -> everyone is right shyness friendly, welcoming atmosphere lack of state support/funds being (or not) involved in youngsters' personal life -> you want it or not lack of authority keeping the distance not being able to interest youngsters, pass the knowledge lack of 'safe space', non-judgmental mandatory activities (e.g. school after school activities) -> lack of time and energy

priorities peers' pressure empathy and understanding to everyone's needs lack of knowledge, experience, preparation to deal with difficulties lack of creativity not coming to meetings regularly bad habits (alcohol, drugs) lack of connection -> creating connection, building team different methods (drama, crafts etc.) to help youngsters open up and break the ice lack of motivation or interest responsibilities -> irresponsibility different background, cultural differences competing when it comes to picking up an idea they want to implement in general (e.g. YW's attention) lack of commitment

What makes young people involved in learning process? perspective for good life healthy habits good health good environment to study having more intersting topics healthy competition rewards peers pressure havingmotivation entertainment participation in the learning process (active role) sharing experienc and attitudes (feeling useful) teamwork/cooperation for group projects and activities practicing their knowledge social interaction

flexibility in the learning process using technology gamification having set objectives from the beginning seeing the outcome feeling responsible for the process balance between physical and intercultural activities doing engaging activity before learning time a feeling of belonging to the group and feeling significant activities that catch up their attention and more important - their interest no judgment useful and daily life topics feeling safe (from labels) not feeling underestimated

NAOMIE METHOD Participants were encouraged to work on their own ideas for projects, First they proposed topics and then others interested in developing the idea could join them. To make the ideas possible to implement the trainers presented to participants NAOMIE method, which is helpful while planning next steps of project organising. It can be used to set what is our target and its needs, what is an aim of our project, what are objectives of it. It also motivates to think already while planning about possible methodology and technicalities like - time and location, roles in team and way of how we can we check, if project was successfull.

Needs Aim

why?

Objectives

how?

Methods

tools for how

Implementation

how, but detailed

Evaluation

did it succeed?

There were 6 groups created eventually, topics of proposed projects' ideas were like: disconnecting from technology, improving writing skills, slow fashion, power of words, digital literacy, aromatherapy. After work in groups we were discussing in plenary about those ideas and also checking, if NAOMIE method has been implemented well.

STATEMENTS OF OUR PARTICIPANTS The most rich experience of my life, the most powerful, the most colorful, the most exciting.

In only one week I’ve learnt about life even more than years and years at school because I discovered the power of non-formal education: it makes you be really active in learning through different activities and it makes you memorize better; instead in the usual formal learning you, as a simple listener, are not really involved and sometimes there is even the risk to fall asleep.

Moreover the topics faced are almost never mentioned at school even if soft skills communication, public speaking, self confidence, creativity, teamwork, time management, motivation- are as important as knowledges about maths, history, sciences and so on given at school, or maybe even more.

So I’ve learnt to accept myself a bit more, to boost my self-confidence, to motivate me in something else except university’s studies.

I’ve learnt what’s the real meaning of communication in order to express myself, for being respected and without getting aggressive, through the non violent communication method by Marshall Rosenberg: he advices to know and tell what we really want, to express exactly our needs , to listen to us and recognize our feeling and to substitute a kind request to a demand; only in this way we can not fall in arguing because every human shares the same needs and we are able to understand each other.

I’ve learnt a new method to be focused on my tasks called Pomodoro technique that i hope could boost my productivity in future projects.

I improved a little bit more my skills on working in team outside of university field, trying to share opinions and new ideas on different topics. And I discovered that it’s not too bad not being the first on purposing any initiative in teamwork because I can always contribute otherwise, giving reasons to practice an idea or another. It’s just me: working better alone.

I realized what’s the feeling of freeing my mind, my body, my energy thanks to people I met here and I discovered there is a big world waiting for coming out from me.

And creativity? This was one of my aim in life: being more creative in daily life and in work as well, but here I realized that mine was not so low even if I can always improve.

Every tips received, every activities done -individual or in team- every game played, every person known in this project made me grow up a bit more, not only in knowledges and skills, but also for knowing better myself.

It’s a sort of little piece of world I had the chance to know because of the huge cultural exchange: I felt as I travelled for the most part of Europe in only one week even if I didn’t visit almost any places, but i got to visit people.

Human relationships are the most beautiful things that a human been can create if the quality of time spent together is high, not only full of jokes, games and laughs.

Now it’s up to me practice practice and practice as Marshall Rosenberg says for making really productive all of this learning.

I can say for sure that doing this kind of project shaped me and changed my life in better, so thanks European Union for having given this opportunity to me, because i’m more and more sure that every person of the world can open up your horizons and give you another reason to live and not only survive.

Giulia Capozza

Maria João Sá

It was my second time in Poland, my first time in Zakopane. It was a great experience with the special scenario of a wooden house in the mountains with the snow, representing the stereotype of the Christmas atmosphere.

First of all I want to underline this; this project allowed me to feel Christmas again. +1 for the project! Then i want to talk about the group (another +1!). I really appreciated the high multiculturalism, due to the presence of a large number of representatives of different nations, that allowed me to discover new things about countries that i used to know less. Moreover the people was really sociable and struggled to include every participant in the group, giving also the possibility to the most shy people to express their ideas and opinions. The process of inclusion was also favored by the getting-toknow each other activities first, and then by the daily group activities, linked to the topic treated.

What did I mostly carried with me? The awareness of being able to write my own project according to age range, target group, the topic, planning also the activities to develop it through the qhole project.

Among all the activities, I really loved the guided reflection lead by Paulina; this kind of activities has awakened in me the creativity and the ability of looking to the past to improve and understand what we want to plan in the future. Really interesting the video of Rosemberg, that made me understand the difference between feelings and emotions. The organisation, before and during the project was amazing. The trainer and the facilitators really cared about the feedbacks that we gave daily at the end of the activities, in a mid-term project evaluation, and the final evaluation. This is caring!

All the needs and the suggestions given by the participants were accepted and used also to sew the project tailored to the group. I think that this method worked and let the project obtain better results with the high involvement in the activities. I created some strong bonds with a lot of people.To conclude, I couldn’t avoid to talk about food.

It was very tasty and various; moreover the organisers let us taste the typical Polish food, and allowed me to cook and prepare an Italian meal. It was such a pleasure!It is not a coincidence the fact that now that I returned to Italy, I miss the atmosphere we had created in Zakopane. We rock!

Marco Sciscioli

Also here you can find a PDF with a report about our training course prepared by Hungarian participants: Zsanett FĂźgg and AnnamĂĄria Nemes:

http://bit.ly/2McCuyJ And a blog post written by Bulgarian participant Desislava Petkova:

https://bit.ly/3bOEKGW

THANK YOU!

This publication is under license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Details of the license: https://bit.ly/2xRGG2y

Disclaimer The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

graphic design: Karolina Nieckarz text: Karolina Nieckarz & Paulina Drzał