In October 2014, I attended a week long
training for Youth in Action in Puente Genil, Spain. The training was called
“Keep Active and Change your Life” and was organised by the Spanish NGO
Camaleon Rojo. The aim of the course was to empower European youth by providing
greater understanding of the European job market, as well as methods to
approach the job-hunting process. The programme was attended by four groups
from different nationalities, the Italian team, the Austrian team, the Spanish
team, the Polish team, and last but not least, the Dutch Team. Drawing on the
resources compiled by teams from five countries, the trainee was provided with
a comprehensive understanding of the European job-market and was equipped with
skills to deal with the difficulties of securing a career in a difficult
economic time. It was a fantastic experience and I feel privileged to have
attended. I gained massive cultural experience and learned a lot during the
training, and had the opportunity to meet highly motivated and inspirational
people.
The training was intensive, starting every
day at 08.00 and ending every day at around 22.00. The training consisted of a lot of
role-playing and presenting. Main activities included, playing the Stereotypes
game, partaking in Cultural Evenings, doing Energizers, defending a point of
view, preparing an Interview and a CV, learning about news ways to present a CV
such as the Video Curriculum format, and creating a song based on our
experiences during the training. All team exercises were highly educational,
especially as they involved interacting with people from different cultures
with different mind-sets. I found I could deal with it quite well, and felt
that despite different cultural approaches, there were basic human similarities
that we could lock on to.
Besides activities directly related to the
Youth in Action training, we were invited to participate in several cultural
outings. Of course, being with so many different cultures was a training in
itself, and we learned loads about the various cultures that were represented.
Cultural excursions were an important part of the trip. Our first excursion was
a visit to the town hall of Puente Genil, to meet with the Mayor. Local
journalists were present, and country group leaders were asked to speak about
the Youth in Action programme. It was nice to make the Puente Genil newspapers.
An excellent part of the trip was the visit to Cordoba, what a fantastic city.
It was about 28 degrees, and we spent the day sight-seeing. It was an amazing
experience. The city used to be an important part of the Muslim Caliphate, and
had impressive Muslim architecture. I was blown away by a mosque we visited,
which had been converted to a Christian church. I had never seen anything like
it. It was a bizarre mixture of Mosque and Church, with Christian paraphernalia
adorning three of the walls, the fourth wall was still covered in Muslim temple
art. The vast hall was like some ancient Middle Eastern prayer room, with sand
coloured columns a sprawling flagstone floor. The ceiling was very high, and
the whole thing looked like a massive desert cave, and very impressive. For the
rest of the afternoon we walked through the historic part of the town, as well
as the beautiful bridge leading out of Cordoba. A few of us spent a
considerable amount of time shopping for souvenirs. It seemed to be no obstacle
that pretty much every tourist shop was exactly the same, as we nipped into the
next tourist shop available after having just left the first.
In conclusion I found the whole experience
tremendously valuable. Meeting the people from the other countries and developing
a close relationship with them provided us all with a profound experience of
each other’s culture, as well as throwing light on our own culture, and the
things we do without thinking about them, as they are supposedly normal. The
training was interesting too, as it enabled me to unravel my thoughts about job
hunting, as well as passing on some information that had been very helpful to
me. The atmosphere was fantastic and reflected in the ongoing Facebook group,
which for two weeks after the training is still used as a contact point for
participants from all teams, and where all photos are uploaded and further
arrangements are made for meeting up in the participant countries. Everyone
made a great effort, and people who at the start of the week were having
difficulties with English improved in leaps and bounds. It was a pleasure to
see people’s confidence and expertise improve in such a short time. Public
speaking skills were greatly improved, as everyone was expected to get up in
front of the group and present various role playing activities. Initially, some
people were considered designated public speakers, but as the programme went
on, everyone gained confidence and the skill to present, and present well in
English no less. To some the experience was even life changing, as confidence
increased and new horizons were delineated. Whereas previously participants had
a fixed view of life and how it should be lived, now opportunities were
limitless, and not bound by past conditioning. In short, the Youth in Action
training programme contributed to the personal freedom of the participants, and
as such achieved a worthy goal. I was inspired by the other people I met, as
they were all outgoing, positive, and adventurous individuals, who had faced
and overcome various challenges in their lives, and had a wide array of skills
and pursuits. Certain characteristics I noticed in some of the participants I
will emulate, as I was deeply impressed by them. In short, it was a privilege
to have been able to attend the Youth in Action training.
