The Travelling Tariners Scheme allows EFIL Member Organisations to request the participation of a trainer from the EFIL European Pool of Trainers (EPOT) to take part in national training or volunteer meetings. To encourage exchanges of expertise, interesting methodologies, ideas and concepts, EFIL funds a limited number of the Travelling Trainers per year. EFIL pays for the travel but does not cover the other expenses such as preparation, accommodation, etc. which is covered by the AFS organisation hosting the event.
Member organisations are invited to contact the EFIL Secretariat for more information.
Last month, Vica Bedő (EPOT member and AFS Hungary/AFS France volunteer) attended Uddanelsesbazaren – the national training event of AFS Denmark – as a Travelling Trainer. EFILife asked her to tell us about her experience.
Hi dear EFILife readers,
Let me tell you about my wonderful experience at AFS Denmark’s Uddanelsesbazaren 2016, where I had the chance to be EFIL’s Traveling Trainer and the way I got there.
I call myself an „international mobility consultant” on my business card, not because it’s so fancy (well, maybe that’s a reason too ), but because I found that this covers everything connected to international mobility programmes for young people; from training through project management to mentoring. I live in Strasbourg, France and Budapest, Hungary, depending on where I have more things to do.
At the moment, I’m writing you this message from a pretty café in Budapest.
You can see that my professional life looks much like what we do with AFS. This is because most of the skills I use now, I gained through my years with our organisation on national and international level.
Now it’s time for me to give back to AFS, so I am very happy that I could represent EFIL and support the volunteers of AFS Denmark to aquire knowledge and competences in the topics of Active Citizenship, Debriefing and Stereotypes & Prejudices on 4-6 November in Silkeborg, Denmark.
Uddanelsesbazaren is an annual national training event, where the volunteers have the chance to participate in three different workshops and spend time together for a weekend.
As a Travelling Trainer I had multiple tasks: Not only to prepare and realise the workshops (each 3 hours long) of very high quality, but also to make sure the local volunteers learn about EFIL and all the advantages of getting involved with the European-level work of AFS organisations. I also wanted to spend some quality time with local volunteers who were interested in my personal and professional story as an international trainer and as one half of an international couple. It felt really nice to share these stories, hear about other’s lives and make some new friends as well.
I am still waiting for the official feedback of my workshop, but overall I feel that all three sessions went well and reached their objectives. After each workshop I had a participant who came to me and highlighted certain parts that were useful for them and some asked further questions. I think the most important role of such short workshops on big topics is to make participants interested and motivated to research further and work in the fields.
I need to highlight that the existing EFIL materials helped me a lot to provide high quality workshops. I used the materials of the Training for Trainers event of 2012 and the ACTIVE Manual of Activities.
I think the biggest advantage of a Travelling Trainer at a national or regional AFS event is that we can bring the European perspective and the tools available in different countries to local volunteers. Not every AFS organisation can always send participants to international events and not all international event participants are efficient multipliers. They may learn a lot, but the goal is to provide this international learning opportunity to as many volunteers as possible. That’s what we, the EFIL European Pool of Trainers, are here for.
I hope that my contribution to Uddanelsesbazaren 2016 helped making the event inspiring and memorable for the participants and making their voluntary work a great opportunity for self-development and improving their communities.
All the best,
Vica Bedő
AFS Hungary/France
For more information about Travelling Trainers contact: izabela.jurczik-arnold@afs.org