22 youth workers have been trained on applying the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) in non-formal education within an online seminar organised by the Council of Europe Project “Education for Democracy in the Republic of Moldova”, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund in Moldova.
The event was organised in the context of efforts to ensure coherence between the formal and non-formal civic education in the Republic of Moldova, and to support the application in practice of the methodological guidelines on the civic education subject adopted by the Ministry of Education and Research, which include a special section dedicated to the cooperation between schools and youth centres in developing competences for democratic culture in young people. Youth workers and teachers share the same objectives and aim to develop the same competences, values and attitudes in terms of democratic culture, but often they do not have a clear understanding of the purpose of this cooperation and each other’s role in this process.
During the on-line event, the national experts presented and discussed with the participants the concepts and assumptions underlying the RFCDC and its model of competences, as well as the implementation of the RFCDC in the Moldovan educational context and encouraged the participants to reflect on the role and responsibilities of youth workers and civic education teachers in developing schoolchildren’s competences for life as active and engaged citizens.
“We had the opportunity to reflect on and critically evaluate our activity as youth workers in a friendly online environment. Now I understand better the model of competences and the role that youth centres play in developing schoolchildren’s competences for democratic culture”, Alina Butnaru of Ungheni Youth Centre said.
The event was a first experience of connecting youth workers with the RFCDC approaches and principles in the Republic of Moldova. Follow up activities to build on this first exposure to the RFCDC of the youth workers will be organised, as well as activities to familiarize more closely the teachers and other formal education specialists with non-formal education approaches and tools.
The project "Education for Democracy in the Republic of Moldova" is implemented by the Council of Europe and is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in the framework of SDC Programme "Moldova: Fostering Active Civic Engagement".
