Training for Trainers (T4T) was organised this spring by AEGEE-București and took place from 14th-20th March in București. If you did not have the chance to apply for the event, you can find out in this article what the organisers think of the whole event, what challenges they encountered and how they got along with the participants. We talked to the project coordinator, Bogdan Vișan and the assistant coordinator, Irina Matei. But, we also asked three of the participants, Eva Brieler, Matej Petrov and Francesca Russo to tell us more insights about this event and get a clear idea of how the project went. 

The AEGEEan: First of all, what is your overall impression of the project?

Bogdan & Irina: The project was approached with a degree of challenge from the team but with great responsibility from all. It was a collective effort all in all and could not have been done without the help and motivation of all the team members. On the other hand, there was the trainers’ team, who managed to get every participant involved in the program despite the tight schedule and few hours of sleep. I think everything ended up being great in every aspect and despite not being perfect I can say we remain grateful for this opportunity because we learned a lot from this experience. For the effort, understanding and commitment of all taking part in this amazing project, the overall impression is satisfaction and a little bit of childish joy.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the event?

The biggest challenge we encountered during the event was probably right after the trainers arrived in Bucharest and had a chance to talk about some of the matter we could not discuss over conventional communication channels. Having only one day remain until the start of the T4T, we realised that our programs were not syncronized. This meant that we had to change a lot of things last-minute, but, as always, we adapted and we pulled it through.

Also, another big challenge for the organising team happened the day when the participants had to deliver their presentations. At first, it seemed very hard, if not impossible to organise and complete the tasks for the whole day. Nevertheless, it was manageable, but the satisfaction we got from making this project a reality was important to us and to the members of AEGEE-București.

What could you have done differently?

It is almost impossible not to miss things during a project this big, especially when none of the team members ever experienced a T4T project. Considering this, we would have liked to have had a better communication with The Academy and with the trainers in order to get a better vision and structure of what we had to organise throughout the event.

What did you think of the participants?

Ever since the beginning, we were very excited to meet the participants. Having said this, during all our preparations and T4T meetings, all we thought about was how we could do everything so that they feel comfortable, learn everything they need to, eat right, get to know us, our city and also have some fun. According to their feedback, we managed to reach their expectations, and we are very glad we did so, because they were all extraordinary people, joyful and eager to learn. It was a good experience, both for them and for us. We miss them terribly, but we are sure we will meet again somewhere in Europe soon enough, maybe even at our “4 seasons TSU” which we are organising together with AEGEE-Chișinău.

Do you plan to organise a similar event next year?

T4T was indeed a successful project for our antenna and many of the organising team members were motivated to get involved in other local and international projects. Some of them are even planning to coordinate other projects in the future. So, brace yourselves, AEGEE-București has big plans for you!

Now we asked a few questions to three of the participants, Eva Brieler from AEGEE-Bamberg, Matej Petrov from AEGEE-Skopje and Francesca Russo from AEGEE-Padova about the event and what kind of impression it did leave them with.

What did you like the most about this event?

Eva: The people, everyone was so super nice and open. The overall atmosphere at the event was amazing and helped to get the most out of the sessions, too. It was so stimulating to see everyone develop and learn.

Matej: This event was a great combination of content and friendship. On one hand the content was something in which we, the participants, were very interested in, and on the other hand we got the chance to really get to know each other and develop great relationships. This possibility to learn something valuable and meet wonderful people at the same time was what I liked the most about this event.

Francesca: The case study! In fact, I learnt how to work with a co-trainer, learnt the theory and to produce games and activities to deliver the perfect training.

What was the structure and thematic of the training sessions? 

Eva: Trainings (theory and praxis). The thematic was how to be a trainer: Didactics, How to prepare/deliver/follow-up, tips and tricks.

Matej: The main theme of the whole training was teaching the participants to become trainers. This included developing the attitude of a trainer, as well as formats and ways to design trainings. The structure of the training session was basically learning by doing. This included representing some theory and then doing exercises to practice.

Francesca: All the sessions were done using the non-formal education, so they were with a part of theory and many interactive activities. They covered all the knowledge needed to deliver a training. So, there were for instance, the training style, the training delivering and our path as trainers. Then we had the case study: everyday a few hours to prepare our final training performance to be delivered for local students.

What did you think of the trainers? What about the organisers?

Eva: The trainers were all very competent in their fields. The content was delivered clearly and we had a lot of fun during the training, too. The trainers were very motivating and supportive. They made a good team!! The organisers were always very helpful and attentive. Whenever we needed something, they would make sure we got it. They were all very dedicated to the project.

Matej: Lovely, lovely people! Both the trainers and the organisers. My general impression is the following: the trainers were very competent and did an amazing job in organising all the sessions, it is even more impressive how they managed to accomplish this if you take the tight schedule in consideration. The content of the session was very broad, interesting, helpful and applicable. The organisers were some of the kindest people I have ever met, always attentive and ready to assist us for everything we needed. They were also very patient with us, sometimes we were a difficult group to control, so I am appreciating this very much.

Francesca: The trainers were prepared and rich in useful suggestions while organisers were always very kind and ready to help us.

How was the social program? What kind of parties did you have? 

Eva: The social program was a bit in the background as there were many training sessions. So we went to bars to have a drink. Of course, there was a European Night and a goodbye party with karaoke.

Matej: This was an event where the social program was not the priority, the focus was always more on the training sessions. However, it is my opinion that the organisers managed to organise great things for us to do after we have finished with all the sessions. We had the chance to see the night life of Bucharest by visiting local pubs, taste traditional Romanian food by visiting a local traditional restaurant, watching (and laughing about) a Romanian comedy movie, and singing in a local karaoke bar. As you can see, it was not bad at all. [he smiles]

Francesca: We did not have an intense social program, because we did have to be awake for the morning sessions and sometimes we did have some evening sessions, too. We had a traditional food night in a characteristic pub, a EU night, a karaoke night and a romanian movie night.

Do you plan to participate in a similar event next year?

Eva: I would like that. So far, I have no plans for next year, it seems too far away. But the event was really amazing, so I can only recommend taking part in it and I would love to be a part of something similar again, too.

Matej: As I mentioned, I love this combination of being able to learn something new for a topic which I am interested in and get to do it while meeting and hanging out with new, kind people. Having said this, I will definitely consider participating in a similar event.

Francesca: Hopefully, as a trainer!

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

AEGEE-București is organising the Training for Trainers (T4T) event from the 14th to the 20th of March  in Bucharest, Romania. If you wish to find out the definition of a “trainer”, what’s his/her role and how you can become one, sign up and you will discover it in seven amazing days in  Romanian style. Deadline for applications is the 7th of February. We spoke with the PR Responsible of the event, Bianca Crăciunescu, in order to give you some exciting information!

The AEGEEan: Hello, Bianca! You are preparing one important European event in your local. How is everything going?

Bianca: We took the challenge of organising an European event and, so far, things are going in the right direction. We wanted to prove that we can organise this important event, and all the members of our team are working hard in order to assure that both trainers and participants will have a great time here in Bucharest.

What is the concept of Training for Trainers?

Training for Trainers is about teaching the participants how they can deliver a good quality training. There will be six  days of specialized trainings and on the seventh day participants will become trainers themselves using what they have learned and facing their fear of public speaking. Besides the training, they will also learn a few things about Romanian culture.

What have you prepared for the participants during those seven days of action?

We want to help them understand better the importance of being a trainer, starting from answering a simple question such as “What is the role of a trainer?”, to a more advanced level, when they should deliver a training interacting constantly with the participants and adapting the level of difficulty to their knowledge. The trainers are preparing for them tips and tricks, content and challenges.

What will the trainings be about? Do you follow a specific theme?

The entire program and theme of T4T will be designed by The Academy. The participants will be given the necessary techniques, methods and tools so they can deliver training sessions on topics that matter for them, the AEGEE network and any other field of action.

Is AEGEE-București preparing the participants to “work all day, party all night?”

Of course! AEGEE-București is preparing an event in the AEGEE spirit.There will be sessions of trainings and workshops, but also time for fun, and the opportunity to meet the lovely and crazy Bucharest!

Is it the first time AEGEE-București organises Training for Trainers?

It is not the first time AEGEE-București organises Training for Trainers. We organized T4T by The Academy already in the past: it was in 2008 and the team of organisers are now Alumni. Now, in 2015, we will bring even more energy to you!

What are your expectations for the event?

I expect this edition of T4T will be unforgettable for the participants, for the trainers and for us, the organising team. I hope we will meet the expectations of the participants and we will also have a lot of fun working together. So, what are you waiting for? It’s training time!

Which are the values of your local, your pride and joy?

The values of our local are: responsibility, teamwork and intercultural communication. We love the fact that we have the opportunity to organise events for young people from other locals of AEGEE and we are proud of all of our members that are active and they call themselves “lifelong volunteers”.

Written by Gabriela Cioată, AEGEE-București

Ever since its establishment in 1999, the AEGEE Academy has been working hard to develop and strengthen the human resources of AEGEE and to stimulate the motivation of its members, by providing them with non-formal learning experiences. Last April the new board of the Academy was elected, starting their term on the 1^st of June after their Knowledge Transfer. Next to this, the Academy also signed the Convention d’Adhesion during Spring Agora Patra. The AEGEEan spoke to the board of the Academy to find out more about their achievements and plans for the future.

Currently, the board of the Academy consists of eight members, namely: Speaker/PR Responsible Andra Berila (AEGEE-Bucuresti), Treasurer Patrick Scholz (AEGEE-Aachen), Secretary John Eikosidekas (AEGEE-Patra), HR Manager and External Relations responsible Urša Svetelj (AEGEE-Ljubljana), Database Manager Michele Minuti (AEGEE-Brescia), IT Responsible and Board Assistant Costas Deltouzos (AEGEE-Patra), Alumni Coordinator, Network Communication Assistant and Board Assistant Maartje Natrop (AEGEE-Utrecht) and Mentorship Program Responsible and Board Assistant Lyda Michopoulou (AEGEE-Leuven).

Although only active for a few weeks now, the new board already has great plans upcoming, like the European School of Entrepeneurship (ESE), organised together with Youth unEmployment this September in Gran Canaria, the Fundraising European School (FRES) hosted by AEGEE-Barcelona in October, the Public Relations European School (PRES) hosted by AEGEE-Poznan in November and the Summer University Project School (SUPS) hosted by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca in December. Besides these great events, plans already have been made for Spring 2015 too. As Andra tells us: “We are planning to organise a Self-Development European School (SES), Training for Trainers (T4T), Human Resources European School (HRES) and European School 2 (ES2).”

However, it’s not only the new board that is new. The Academy itself also got a new status, signing the Convention d’Adhesion at Spring Agora Patra. As Maartje explains: “Since we signed the Convention d’Adhesion, we are no longer a working group. It was a strange place to be in, as we have never really been a working group and therefore couldn’t comply with the requirements. Now we are officially an independent partner organisation of AEGEE, but serving the network remains our main priority. In practice you will not really feel or see the changes, it is just paperwork, but we will keep on rocking as always.”

And rocking is what the Academy has been doing lately. Thanks to the hard work of the former board, the Academy managed to “make the Academy rise from the ashes like a phoenix”, as Antonija Parat said before. “We have had an amazing board term.”, Maartje says, which also shows in the achievements made during the past half year. “We built a new website including an interactive map of trainers and a trainer database, a big online materials database, a new HR booklet, new HR strategy with different levels for trainers (candidate, trainer, senior, alumni), new PR strategy including a new Facebook page and small recruitment movie and we have been rocking a lot of European Schools, Training for Trainers and trainings at the Agora. We did a lot of work behind the scenes as well, like standardizing templates for presentations, Open Calls and creating knowledge transfer manuals for the future boards.”

The database for training materials is a never ending but very thankful job, according to Michele. “Brick by brick we build a house. I am collecting materials of trainers and especially of Academy events and some Network Meetings. At the moment we have the materials, but we have to update them and increase the quality. The best part of my job is that there is no end. My motto is: ‘To collect data is a step for knowledge, but to share is a step for community.’” Another important job is the website, which got updated in January. “The previous website of the Academy had an old fashioned design and its content was rather outdated, so when we launched the new one all of our trainers were excited about it”, Costas says. “The new website’s design is fresh and modern, the content is better structured and easy to find and we have some new features. The main addition that made everyone happy was the trainers’ database. Now it’s easy for everyone to see a list of our trainers and alumni with details about them and where they are located.”
Although the Training for Trainers that took place in April in Budapest already resulted in twenty new trainers, the Academy is always open to new applications. This can be done by applying on the website through a form, or by attending the next Training for Trainers in Spring 2015. Want to find out more about the Academy? Take a look at their website!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

The new year brings new amazing events and “Traning for Trainers”(T4T) is one of them! The event will take place in Budapest, Hungary from 30/03/2014 – 06/04/2014, where five highly-qualified trainers are looking for active members of AEGEE or another student/youth organisation, who are eager to support others in their learning and development process, share their experiences and looking for a comprehensive and challenging experience to get them started on their journey as a trainer. This is a promising event that is going to become a platform for a new generation of trainers. The AEGEEan had an opportunity to talk to the content managers Bernardett Polya and Irina Buriana.

The AEGEEan: Girls, first of all, please tell our readers about yourselves!

Bernardett: “My most common nickname is Berni, but people often think I’m a boy, so Bernadett is also fine in English. The world of trainings came into my life in 2010, when I happened to become the local coordinator of Human Resources European School (HRES). I was amazed to see that after some theory participants opened up, shared ideas, had discussions. It was a really interactive and creative process which was really new for me after so many years of formal education. And then I said…OK, I don’t know how the trainers did this, but I want to learn how to do that.

My next step was to apply and attend the Leadership Summer School in 2011 when I decided for sure that I wanted to go deeper into non-formal education and afterwards got accepted at the Youth Trainers’ Academy which was the first cross-organizational training for trainers organized in Ljubljana. There I got the self-confidence and the basic toolkit I needed, and a lot of connections all over Europe, so I jumped into the training world and delivered so far close 400 hours of training in two years. I was able to coordinate the next HR European School organized in Kyiv and the same year 2012 I made it to become a Trainers Coordinator at Leadership Summer School 2012 in Budapest. (LSS is one of the biggest and most high qualitiy non-formal education event connecting many youth NGOs). And I figured I needed to make some new steps to higher levels. After I had finished university in Summer 2013, I was invited back to lead a seminar – at the Corvinus University of Budapest – on organizational behaviour. This gave me also a kick and a much deeper, more conscious knowledge of non-formal education. I felt I would like to share with others the non-formal education mindset, because I strongly believe this is a key for our generation. We have to break the existing patterns and go for a more collaboration focused way of learning and working, valueing diversity and creativity.

As Irina came along with me on this path – we met at LSS 2011 in Cluj, she as organizer, me as participant -, we attended our Training 4 Trainers together and coordinated LSS 2012 together. We both are crazy in our own ways and high performers, so we decided to create a Training for Trainers event, which we plan to make it a bit different and more experiential than other ones we delivered. This is super challenging and exciting for us and an opportunity to learn.”

Irina: “My name is Irina Buruiana and I come from Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

I will bring another perspective to the local and say that I am not officially part of a local AEGEE group, but I am part of EFPSA (European Federation of Psychology Students’ Association, which represents a highly diverse network of psychology students working on a voluntary basis by and for psychology students of Europe and consists of 32 psychology member assosiations. It was established in 1987, at the first International Congress of Psychology Students in Portugal). I can say that my AEGEE story began with shared events of Cluj-Napoca’s local group and then my implication as a trainer in AEGEE events started with HRES 2012, when along with Bernadette Polya we delivered trainings in the event.

Moving this tradition forward we applied as being managers for this AEGEE T4T, so taking up the challenge of creating a motivational, professional event along with other three amazing trainers.”

Who should apply for this event?

Berni: “Those who are not only willing to become trainers – everyone can call themselves trainers – but wanting to be proactive in this field, not only to react to open calls, but to create events, learning opportunities. We want participants to challenge themselves and join us with passion through this intense and challenging road. We are waiting for such people who have already some experience in the youth field, who have worked with groups, organized and attended events and have met non-formal methods already, enough amount to have a fire inside for it and are capable to follow such a training.”

Why is it important for AEGEE to have more, experienced trainers?

Irina: “We strive for a qualitative event where participants’ inputs bring value and color to their experience. This is one of the reasons why we would like to have experienced participants at our event. Besides this, we believe in community intelligence and experience, therefore we would like to foster knowledge through creating collective experiences. Another aspect of this is that as a trainer having good connection and possibility to develop your network is one of the most powerful assets. Why? Because we are living in a changing world where we need to adapt and to find people/connections with whom we can develop our ideas, dreams and ideal projects. What better opportunity to do that by gathering people with the same interest and desire of investing in themselves as professionals and also on a personal level that strive for the same thing as maybe you strive for: making the world a better place.

How can this event contribute to this? First of all by creating the safe place of this development and investment. On a more practical base, this will be a good opportunity for them to practice and to receive technical and personal feedback on their performance. Another important aspect will be that we will strive to create a space where everyone’s knowledge will create their personal trainer toolbox for further development overall and on specific topics.”

Berni: “Trainers are facilitators of learning and multiplicators. If AEGEE has more highly-prepared trainers who are proactive, that means they’d create more quality events and raise the learning experience of participants. The better trainers we have, the more people we can impact and encourage / help them to develop and take actions to improve their local community and have a positive impact on their environment.

I believe non-formal educational methods are not only connected to trainings, it is a mindset, a way of living. If you know yourself and the way how to handle others, you can reach everything. You can manage yourself better, improve group work, have a better quality in your relationships with others, reveal and raise potential of yourself and others”.

How many people are there in your team?

Berni: “With Irina we are the content managers of the training, but we have three more great members in the team. Ursa (Slovenia) from the AEGEE-Academy, Kristyna (Czech Rep.) from EFPSA and Julia (Germany) from AEGEE. Already an alumni,
Julia works as a professional in political education of youth in Berlin, Ursa finishes her studies on NGO manamgent,  and Kristyna is a psychologist. Also Irina is a graduated psychologist and works as a professional in the HR and training field.”

What are the goals and program of T4T?

Berni: “Regarding the content, we have already set the goals we want to achieve during the event:

• to empower, inspire and motivate participants to become active future generation of Academy trainers: this means, strong team building and follow-up approach before, during and after the event;
• to support and encourage participants to experience and identify themselves with a learning approach: this means safe learning environment, self-development, a place to experiment and get to know the NFE mindset;
•  to provide participants with a basic toolkit for trainings: to design and build ta raining framework from scratch, being able to deliver a training and receive feedback, learn how to use facilitation as a group tool;
• to have a proactive approach towards themselves, their learning process and future events.

In practice this would mean: homework and get to know before the event part of the event to reach a common ground content would be provided mostly by trainers and after halftime of the event, it would be given more in the participants’ hands based on their expressed learning needs. The participants will also have to deliver a training session as a practice project to our group (little training session) and also to external participants as open sessions (3-4 hour session). We will support and help this process with group and personal reflection and feedback and by the end of the event helping them to shape their next steps after the event, with an action plan and a mentor.”

How should people apply to T4T?

Irina: “In order to apply to the AEGEE T4T you need to first want an investment in your skills and to be curious on what a trainer is developing. After you sense this desire, you just need to apply the usual technicalities as every signing in process has: a short form where you will find some questions regarding your experience and also your motivation for the event. One of the most important aspect of this T4T are the people, so as a bonus for the form with the questions there is a request for a short video where we could see the participants and also to hear their motivation.”

Is there anything you would like to add?

Irina: “The only thing that I would like to add is that I encourage you to apply to this event and to take a chance in applying to this event because it has the chance of changing your perspective upon life and opportunities.”

Berni: “We also are in talks with a startup called TrainedOn to be one of their first users and experiementers to design the T4T trainings on their platform and experiement as well with something new”

Written by Anna Smailikova, AEGEE-Kyiv