The Council of Europe's training courses are known from their good quality. In March 2011 the Council of Europe organized the Training Course for Facilitators (Involved in non-formal education with young people) in the European Youth Center Budapest. As YEE Main Coordinator I decided to participate in this project because I want to develop skills that I need in my work for YEE and I expected to bring many important information about one of our main partners, the Council of Europe.

More about the project

The aims of the TC for facilitators meet in many points the needs of YEE:

• to answer the need for developing coordinators‘ competences related to the youth activities they run,

• to secure quality of educational process and a maximisation of results,

• to assure competent members of preparatory teams,

• to act as "multipliers" and to promote Human Rights, Democratic Youth Participation, Intercultural Dialogue and Social Inclusion of young people.

The CoE decided to train facilitators as "the facilitators should be able to understand and care for the learning processes, be able to plan, structure, run and evaluate educational programmes; and be capable to facilitate individual and group learning processes".

What does a facilitator need to know?

Facilitating skills become more and more important in youth projects, especially international ones. A Facilitator should know how to take care of and encourage the learning process - he/she is responsible for learning process of participants. A Facilitator should follow the process (of discussion, meeting, project) and try to find the best way to help the group to reach results, involve all participants, equal participation and common satisfaction from work.
In the manual prepared for facilitators by the Council of Europe you can find the explanation about the role of a facilitator: "The facilitator's tool kit is a set of techniques, knowledge and experience, which they apply to protect the process that the group is working through. The facilitator helps to create the process, adjust it, keep it heading in the right direction and, most importantly, keeps the people attached to it." What we were practicing during the training course were skills of: giving feedback, planning program, introducing workshops, dealing with difficult behaviors, debriefing, leading a discussion. It is important to remember that a facilitator is not a trainer or leader. It's a person that facilitates, make easier the process of the group work.
If you would like to read more about facilitating, read ‘Manual for facilitators in non-formal education' prepared by the Council of Europe.

Facilitating Study Session

During the Training Course we practiced mostly facilitating as the example of the specific type of project - Study Session. It is a special type of project that can be organized in European Youth Centers (Budapest, Strasbourg). It is a project especially designed to strengthen the network, for capacity building of the organisation, to analyze important topics for the network.

Advantages:

• All facilities of European Youth Center (accommodation, food, social space, technical equipment).

• Learning and exchanging the experience between participants - that's why a facilitator (not trainer) is needed.

• Educational advisor helps with development of the program and with leading the project.

• Each participants pays 50 EUR as participation fee and has 100 % of travel costs reimbursed - European Youth Center can take care of the reimbursement.

I hope that next year YEE will use this opportunity and organize a Study Session.

The training course was very useful for me - I can be now a better facilitator for YEE projects, I am more aware about the Council of Europe and the European Youth Foundation and I established new contacts with other international networks.
Also members of YEE will soon have a chance to practice facilitating skills. Training Course ‘I can lead! I can facilitate!' will be organized in Prague in July 2011 and we will focus on facilitating and leadership skills in environmental youth projects.

Good luck with improving your facilitating skills!

Gosia Zubowicz
YEE Main Coordinator