The recognition of non-formal education and youth work is a key priority for the Council of Europe. Recognition means promoting the value and role of non-formal education and youth work and applying quality standards in the practice of non-formal education activities with young people. The Council of Europe is a key European actor in non-formal education and training, particularly through the educational programme of the European Youth Centres in Budapest and Strasbourg and the training of multipliers. The work of the Youth Department in the area of education and training is based on the values of the Council of Europe, human rights, youth participation, and intercultural dialogue.

Quality in the educational activities of the Department is a constant concern and quality standards for the activities held in the European Youth Centres inform the activities implemented. They cover all the aspects in the educational process from preparation and needs analysis, to composition of the team and recruitment of participants, to processes during the activity, evaluation and environmental conditions to be ensured. The work of trainers, facilitators and multipliers in non-formal education activities with young people is one of the most important elements in determining the quality – and the recognition - of non-formal education interventions. 

The training course aims to support the quality development of non-formal education activities in the Council of Europe through the development of competence of trainers active in the youth field.

The strategic objectives for the course are:

• to contribute to the recognition and quality development of non-formal education in the youth field in Europe;
• to contribute to the development of a professional profile of youth trainers in Europe and the recognition of their competences;
• to support quality development in the work of youth organisations in Europe in non-formal education, notable those cooperating with the European Youth Centres of the Council of Europe;
• to contribute to the quality and sustainability of the youth programme of the Council of Europe and its partners including the enlargement and diversification of the Trainers Pool;
• to promote the Council of Europe’s values and approaches underlying European youth work and to reflect on how they should apply in training activities.

The educational objectives of the course are:

• to support participants in gaining a good understanding of the Council of Europe’s institutional framework, values, principles and practices underlying non-formal education with young people in the Council of Europe and in developing coherence and consistent non-formal education training activities;
• to develop participants’ competence to design, run and evaluate non-formal education and training activities at European level, based on an adequate needs analysis and using appropriate methodologies;
• to explore the notion of quality in non-formal education and training activities and how to apply it;
• to advocate the role of training and non-formal education within the current priorities of European and national youth policies;
• to reflect on the ethical, professional and social implications of working as a trainer in non-formal education;
• to support participants to learn how to guide and facilitate intercultural processes in non-formal education settings;
• to support participants to learn how to manage a non-formal education and training project effectively;
• to reflect on the contribution of non-formal education and training to the development of a human rights culture.

TRAYCE includes several phases and a combination of residential, practice-based and online learning, as follows:

• Preparation for the first residential seminar (mid – April to June 2015)
• online activities to get to know each other, learn more about participants’ contexts and practice, learn more about the Council of Europe and collect participants’ expectations about the course and their learning needs. Participation and citizenship

 

• First residential seminar (15 – 23 June 2015)
• introduction and kick off of the course and all its features;
• training sessions related to the priorities of the Council of Europe and training and education matters (non-formal education, training skills);
• introduction to competences development process within the course (self-assessment, learning plans).

 

• Practice and online learning (June 2015 – June 2016)
• participants’ practice phase and products;
• online learning and specialised thematic modules (training essentials, intercultural learning, …);
• job shadowing opportunities for participants in order to consolidate their competences;
• mentoring.

 

• Second residential seminar (June 2016)
• educational evaluation of participants’ practice phase and products;
• building competences regarding advocacy and the role of trainers;
• consolidation of learning.

 

• Evaluation of the course (during autumn 2016)
• evaluation of the learning in the course and participants’ follow-up.

TRAYCE is based on the principles of non-formal education and uses the following approaches: experiential learning; task-based learning; cooperative and peer learning; observation – evaluation – reflection, self-directed learning, learning to learn; learning within organisations, and in connection with participants’ local work and their organisation;  intercultural learning; focus on outcomes and practice improvement.

• Self-assessment and learning plans based on competences

The course is based on a competences framework for trainers in the youth field. Each participant undergoes a process of assessing their competences and identifying their learning needs.
 

• Mentoring

Mentoring is a support measure for the professional development of participants and for participants’ full involvement in the course.
 

• Residential seminars

Two residential seminars are organised within TRAYCE. They offer a wide variety of sessions for competence improvement, in an environment which highlights the value of intercultural learning.
 

• Practice activity

Participants plan, run and evaluate a training activity responding to a number of quality criteria. They reflect on the quality of their practice and seek ways to improve their work.
 

• Product

Participants create products, as a contribution to developing their competences and that contributes to the development and recognition of non-formal education. The product can be a paper, article, research, game, training module etc.
 

• Online learning

Online learning units improve participants' general trainer competences. In the online platform participants also have a space for peer learning and group communication.
 

• Job shadowing

Participants engage in job shadowing, either in study sessions teams, or in local organisations, etc. This opportunity was developed after assessing participants’ learning needs.
 

About Tonny:

“I work in a rural area at Mafcentrum, as an innovative social supportive of vulnerable groups and I also run Out of Area (renovation and activity projects by Dutch vocational training institutions in social institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina). During the past three years I have been focusing on the importance of intercultural learning and human rights and human rights education. Human rights in the Netherlands are seen as something we have and do not need to be focused on or practiced too much; this is the case also in social work. A lot is still to be learned in the process of developing democratic measures for including vulnerable people and youth in policy development. All of this combined became my motivation to participate in TRAYCE and be able to create, provide and sustain a platform for local (rural) youth to be able to look abroad and cross their borders, literally and figuratively. My second motivation is to internationalize the recognition of non-formal learning of Out of Area practice, as well as integrate human rights education in the practice. Last but not least is the motivation to create a democratic process for the inclusion of youngsters and vulnerable groups into policy making.!”

About Karen:

"I am honoured to have been selected to take part in the TRAYCE course. I represent the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network. I have been a youth worker and human rights advocate since 2007. Before joining the course, I had gained some experience working as a trainer in several youth activities. However, I felt that I needed to polish my capacity to design and implement youth projects, and TRAYCE was the perfect opportunity for me. Taking part in the course has enabled me to develop competences beneficial for my professional and personal development. I gained technical skills like building and managing a blog and using various online tools, I was unfamiliar with, for creative purposes. I also developed practical skills in designing and facilitating youth projects. My main goal when I joined the course was to improve my capacity to use NFE for the transmission and transfer of knowledge and to acquire new methods and tools to work with in the future. I believe I achieved this goal. The TRAYCE course has been challenging, productive and memorable. I am now more confident in my work as a trainer."

About Cihan:

“I have been taking part in various initiatives that aim to promote human rights and improve the understanding of democratic values, through non-formal education; however it is the first time that I feel I am also re-discovering various different paradigms to create a difference. TRAYCE has enabled me to experience personally the meaning of safe space and explore its effects over creativity. 

About Kalle:

“After 15 years of work as a trainer for various organisations in Finland, TRAYCE offers me the possibility I had sought to widen my world. And for me, TRAYCE has already delivered: knowledge, insights and experience as a trainer, but especially ideas and good practices to spread home and around the globe for people, networks and NGOs working to make life in all its forms better.”

About Ida:

“My first experience as a trainer on international level was as a part of a Council of Europe study session preparatory team when I was just 18 years old, and I have since then had a passion and interest in the topics and approaches of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. TRAYCE is for me an opportunity to coherently develop and broaden my knowledge of different themes, deepen my understanding of concepts and get to know the educational values behind the work I am already familiar with. The training course is also a great chance to create networks with other trainers who share my values and passion for human rights and democracy, and get even more involved in the work of the Council of Europe.”

About Gatis:

“I come from Latvia and I am disabled since 1995. Since 2011 I am actively involved in voluntary work in field of protecting rights of persons with disabilities on European level as national Coordinator for Latvia in ENIL - European Network on Independent Living. Since 2015 I am Vice - chairperson of the ENIL Youth Network interim board. My main aim in the TRAYCE is to develop my trainer skills and expand my experience and knowledge with non-formal education and to learn how to achieve the best results at being trainer to promote understanding of independent living concept (especially to the young people with disabilities). I should say that already in the first residential meeting I felt that journey in the TRAYCE will be very fruitful and productive, and guess - what?  It is totally!”

About Ana:

“TRAYCE is a journey of exploration of myself, my work, of possible connections and possible changes. With an open heart, an open mind and an open will, I have been engaged in this collective learning experience through a process of reflection and learning about what I do as educator with responsibilities fighting social exclusion, inequality and violence close to young people and to our communities. In an educational world that most of the times privilege numbers instead of learning, privileged projects instead of long term commitments with young people and communities, I feel that TRAYCE, where we have the opportunity to work close and together for 1 year and a half with youth workers and educators from so diverse backgrounds and professional experiences, brings the perspective that learning and social transformation needs commitment, trust, open dialogue and collective creation, encouraging us to act and change.”

About Atanas:

“I hold a BA in Pedagogy and French and an MA in Critical Gender Studies from the Central European University in Budapest. I work on advocacy issues at the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). My work experience focuses mainly on Roma inclusion policies and programmes in EU countries, policy analysis, and gender issues. In TRAYCE I represent the Forum of European Roma Young People, one of the largest networks of Roma youth in Europe. My main objective in TRAYCE is to increase my knowledge and capacity as a trainer in non-formal education in regards to Roma and Roma youth participation, gender and identity issues and human rights education.”

About Mustafa:

“I am pursuing my objective to become a Roma youth trainer, that is why i am involved in TRAYCE and i love it!”

About Dani:

“I am Dani and I am an activist, advocate and trainer for human rights at national and international level. I enjoy creating inclusive, creative and critical spaces for discussion and empowerment for young people. I got involved in TRAYCE because I knew that being a trainer requires constant learning and experiencing. I am always eager to discover more tools, approaches, and see how we, as activists, can use non-formal education best in order to advance human rights. I hope that in the end of this learning program I will have developed the attitudes, skills and knowledge needed to create meaningful learning opportunities for youth, especially youth with minority backgrounds.”

About Luca:

“I graduated from Minority Studies and Ethnic Relations from Eötvös Lóránd Science University, Budapest in 2012. My field of interest is social activism, specifically how to combat discrimination and extremism. I have been active in the field of youth work for over ten years, participating and organising international youth projects, mostly focusing on minority issues and social inclusion. I work as a freelance trainer involving young activists from different ethnic and religious communities. Currently, I am the Regional Manager of MiNYanim, a Jewish community development project where I work on planning and implementing the educational content of the programme. I joined TRAYCE to meet and work with likeminded people; to develop my competences, learn about different practices and methods in order to foster social change through youth work.”

About Afag:

“TRAYCE were those 5 letters that promised to become a platform for learning and improving the skills in non-formal education in the first place. It foreshadowed peer-learning, sharing and exploring this world together. For me, a young person involved in youth sphere and currently working at the National Youth Foundation directly working with youth on a daily basis, this was an important project to learn and grow so that to convey the knowledge and experience further to the young people and NGOs we work with. So it became. TRAYCE involved me deeper in the core of non-formal education and intercultural learning. Through the course, I am developing the competences of an non-formal education trainer with the ability to design educational programmes implementing the quality assessment tools, have a broader and more comprehensive understanding on culture and intercultural learning and how to use the concept in the dynamically changing reality of the 21st century; on how important the peer support in this sphere is. Having these skills developed in myself, I consider having a certain impact in the development of the filed in my society and the recognition of non-formal education.”

About Gubaz:

“I am involved in youth work and non-formal education since 2011, when I was school student and with my friends established school students’ umbrella organisation Georgian School Students Unions Alliance. In early 2012 I have decided that non-formal education is the thing to what I want to connect my life and I did so… I am working on different issues such as: human rights, democracy, participation, youth policy, and etc. and non-formal education is always with me. Non-formal education for me is almost the way of life, like a lifestyle that is keeping you always in tonus and gives you chance to find something new and work on yourself. I have decided to live in this way and work constantly on development of different competences. For this, the best opportunity for me was to participate in TRAYE. TRAYCE really gives you chance to explore non-formal education, ways how to work with young people, approaches to different situations, how to be good trainer and etc.”

About Yuliya:

“I am a trainer, consultant, youth worker. I have more than 15 years of experience of trainings for young people, also with disabilities (hearing disabilities and mobility), and from rural areas, and mentorship of youth initiatives. Participants of my trainings state they had increased their social and civic competences, creativity,  sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, and had been able to initiate and implement their ideas to improve the society. I am in TRAYCE for developing my competencies as a trainer working on international level, especially with human rights education and intercultural learning.”

About Marinela:

“I have been involved in non-formal education because I truly believe that I can make a valuable difference and TRAYCE enables me to integrate and sustain the goals of human rights, equality and dignity and respect for diversity at practical levels of my personal and professional efforts.”

About Cafer:

“I am an active young person, passionate about youth work, trainings, community work and human rights. I have been involved in different organisations in the past 8 years and I am still working with young people with the same love and devotion as in the beginning. Becoming a trainer has marked the beginning of a new stage in my personal and professional life. This new starting point in my life as a trainer has given me the amazing opportunity to find out about the open call for TRAYCE and to apply for it.  I consider myself as a lucky one given the fact that I had been accepted. I had the chance to meet and be trained with people from different countries from Morocco to Finland and Sweden and from Spain to Azerbaijan and Georgia. Having the possibility/opportunity/ to be part of such a great team and to share time, emotions and feelings, and finding huge support is invaluable and unforgettable experience. TRAYCE is not only a training but a philosophy for whole life.”

About Denise:

“Perceiving the world through the eyes of the Council of Europe gave me a new perspective on issues and topics. TRAYCE is a fantastic learning opportunity facilitated by very experienced trainers. Through TRAYCE, I can deepen my knowledge in human rights, democracy and the rule of law. I am also gaining trainer skills to put theory into practice and share the learning with participants in future courses. Through the diverse backgrounds of TRAYCE participants, I am able to get an insight into different forms of organisations. Furthermore, getting to know people from so many diverse (cultural) backgrounds is enriching for me. It is a pleasure to be a part of TRAYCE.”

About Madiha:

“TRAYCE for me is another form of a visa to enter the international trainer universe; however it is a “visa” that requires enough efforts and that gives you and provide you a full training with qualified trainers and skilled colleagues. TRAYCE is a journey of a thousand paths that everyone models according to the way they want. It allowed me to develop new skills, knowledge and a lot of exchange and lessons from others. TRAYCE is the philosophy itself of the Council of Europe towards young people. Empower support and make them independent.”

About Juraj:

“TRAYCE provided me with crucial instruments for my future. Beside useful knowledge and ability to sharpen my thinking, I have had a chance to develop a strong network of friends and professionals. Opportunity to learn from the great minds, our trainers and among ourselves, has been an experience of great value, helping me to steer my future professional journey. Currently working for an education institute and being in the Board of Directors of international volunteering network, the importance of non-formal education keeps reappearing in my life. I am grateful for being part of such a great team, because:  “It is all about the people after all.”

About Nazarii:

“I work in the fields of youth policy and human rights for 10 years. Each year I more and more understand that education is a key opportunity for positive change of the world in sake of future generations. On the other hand, it is possible to live well in one country, if in other countries people suffer. World is global. TRAYCE for me is an opportunity to become better trainer to improve human rights situation in the world.”

About Rok:

“I got involved with TRAYCE because I believe that education is a way to change the world and make it a better place, and the non-formal education activities of the Council of Europe contribute a lot to this idea. I have more than 10 years of experience with non-formal education and youth work, and this course offers a unique opportunity to develop my competences in these matters on European level. I am also a member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe, so I try to advocate for non-formal education and youth work in different fora. As a student of educational policies, I am also interested to learn and work in different educational systems, formal and non-formal.”

About Kseniia:

“I'm absolutely happy to be a part of TRAYCE long-term training for trainers. TRAYCE is a great opportunity to put everything in a system in your head, to structure and to upgrade my knowledge and skills in order to bring it to participants of my events, share the information through social media and educational programmes, training courses, seminars. Another amazing part of TRAYCE is working together with colleagues, professionals from different countries, coming from different organizations and backgrounds. It is an amazing intercultural dialogue and learning opportunity.”

About Simone:

“I usually say that I’ve been involved in non-formal education since when I didn’t even know what non-formal education was. TRAYCE is for me the possibility to question what I am doing. It is about diving into the essence of the non-formal education. It is also about sharing thoughts, doubts and ideas with practitioners and activists from all across Europe and beyond. The close contact with human rights education has been an eye-opening experience that “captivated” me and deeply re-oriented my learning process as well as my professional path.”