Education – Views International

Youth First

OfficeViews — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 22:26:08 +0000

In the European Year of Youth, five EU Agencies, Cedefop, Eurofound, ELA, EU-OSHA and ETF came together to organize an event with the EMPL Committee of the European Parliament to share their insights and explore the challenges and opportunities for young people in times of uncertainty. The Directors of the five Agencies together with MEPs and other experts discussed working conditions for young people, youth policies, wellbeing and mental health, access to education and training, opportunities for cross-border mobility, and realities in EU neighboring countries. VIEWS International attended this event and would like to share the outcomes.

The event started with the five Agencies’ commitment to recognize the importance of the development, well-being and participation in society and the labor market of young people in Europe. They further explained that they try to reach their commitment by investing in their potential, supporting their labor market integration, promoting quality jobs, facilitating skills development and mobility, and fighting economic and social exclusion. However, they acknowledged that many young people today still have difficulties getting hold of the opportunities to find employment or become the best they can be.

Speaking of opportunities, the next session was dedicated to that. The panelists touched upon the difficulty of getting a job in this changing world of work and the importance of developing the right skills to reduce the uncertainty of change. There were also discussions on how to create opportunities for jobs, education, training, quality work experience programmes and skills for the transition despite all of the challenges. They also reminded us of the advantage of the cross-border European labor markets. Lastly, this session also reflected on European youth policies and the general state of the world in terms of youth employment.

One nice thing about this event was that we also heard the voice of youth in the session called “Meeting the expectations of young Europeans” and the following sessions all revolved around giving a voice to one of the representatives of the concerned parties to speak up about the problems of the youth. After having listened to at least one young person, the five agencies reiterated their pledge to shaping a future that works for young people.

Then the event organizers steered the agenda to a different issue, which was supporting youth facing different challenges. This session covered investing in job quality, well-being and health and safety matters of young people with various different challenges such as disability. Furthermore, the group of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) was not forgotten either. This part of the seminar reflected on who they are really and how to design adequate support measures to meet their needs.

The event came to a conclusion after examining young workers’ job quality, wellbeing and sharing of good practices to protect the health and safety of young people in the workplace.

Learning Training Teaching Activity – Blended mobility of young people – ADD@Me Project

OfficeViews — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:43:27 +0000

VIEWS International welcomed participants for a learning teaching training activity in Liège. Participants from countries as far as Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, Poland as well as Belgium gathered to take part in an intensive training camp for our project ADD@ME (Ambassadors of Diversity and non-Discrimination @ new Methods in non-formal Education) which aims to teach youth workers how to organize awareness raising workshops and equip them with the necessary tools towards this end. Our guests arrived on May 16 and stayed until May 22, during which they learned about facilitating awareness raising workshops with both theoretical and practical exercises.

The first day of the training kicked off with the participants getting to know each other and receiving an introductory session into facilitation with good practice examples. The partner countries presented the ADD@ME project including the tools they developed along with the idea that visually impaired participants would organize their own awareness raising workshops when they returned to their home countries. Of course, future facilitators had also a session where they were informed about how to plan and implement awareness raising workshops.

The second day of the training was allocated to familiarising participants with the project tools and testing those tools for usability. Trainees got the chance to test first the Mobile Toolkit which has more than 100 non-formal training methods (awareness raising and energiser activities) to choose from while organizing a workshop. It is one of the two comprehensive tools designed specifically for raising awareness about visual impairment as part of the project. The next tool that the participants got their hands on was the ADD@ME Online Trivial Game, a platform with a set of quizzes on different topics of visual impairment that aims to increase the knowledge of quiz takers and make them more aware about how people with visual impairment live their lives with a gamifying approach.

Then came the third day of the training with cultural, social and outdoor activities. The day got to a start with a guided tour of Liège which took everyone to a journey in the past and introduced the main attractions of the city to the guests with a bit of history. After a nice picnic for lunch, the group went on to visit la Lumière, the local association of the blind and learned about the services that la Lumière offers to the visually impaired people living in the area.

In the last two days of the training, the facilitators left the stage to the participants and they planned their own awareness raising workshops in small groups, working on the main elements of an awareness raising workshop such as their aims, target groups e.g., students or adults, how many people to involve, how to promote their workshops, find a place and set the timetable according to their aims. Then they used the project tools to find the activities and methods they needed for their workshops and prepared simulations of activities, which they presented to the whole group and got feedback to improve themselves.

The event came to a close with evaluation and feedback sessions to improve the project tools and the participants left Liège, well equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to organize their own awareness raising workshops in their local communities.

Braille challenge Training in Cluj-Napoca Romania

OfficeViews — Fri, 06 May 2022 08:09:58 +0000

Between the 11th April and the 15th April, we got the opportunity to participate at an LTTA project (Learning teaching training activities) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It is a training for teachers, social workers and families of visually impaired and blind people to learn more about the braille alphabet. The activities that we took part included ways to teach and learn Braille and Braille related technologies.

We were four volunteers from VIEWS International. There were also people from Romania and Macedonia. Regardless of where we are from, we were all amazed and impressed by how much we discovered and learned in this project.

The training got to a fast start with a very knowledgeable person who has a lot of experience in non-formal education methods and we had the opportunity to benefit from his experiences. Following this informative session, we attended an extensive presentation on what is braille. In this presentation, we learned more about the history of Braille and reading and writing rules. People who were just introduced to Braille tried to read the Braille letters and realized how challenging it may be to read and write in Braille.

In the afternoon, we all went to visit a high-school for visually impaired people. There were tactile lines everywhere on the floor. All the rooms were very accessible with strong colors. There were even a multi-sensorial room to develop other senses such as tactility, balance and proprioception. On top of that, the school had a gym of Torball and a climbing wall where we got to attend a match demonstration and some of us tried to play. We also tried to climb. We didn’t know that the day would be filled with so many sports activities and we would get our daily exercise. We were very impressed by this adapted school in the center of Cluj.

After that, we were invited to have a drink in an unusual bar with a heavy metal concept. It was not the calmest and quietest place but nonetheless it was a once in a time experience.

The day after was more relaxed but no less busy or interesting. We explored various different gadgets such as Braille machines, braille watches and glasses with synthesis vocals. we got the chance to try some of those Braille tech gadgets. For instance, some of us wrote our names in braille, others tried to read and understand the braille writings of their groups but the most incredible technology was these talking glasses which describes the surroundings of visually impaired people. We also got to meet a blind radio animator who explained to us the significance of Braille in her daily work and life.

The afternoon was reserved for a visit of the university of psychology in Cluj, Disability Service. We met the director of the facility who presented us all the accessibility tools they have such as adapted computers with software’s like Jaws or ZoomText Fusion installed on. They even had 3D printer to print tactile objects. At the end of the presentation, the director invited those who continue their university education to Cluj for an Erasmus study. We now have his contact information and can give it to young visually impaired and blind students who are interested in having an Erasmus exchange in Cluj, Romania.

The last day, Diana, who is a teacher for visually impaired students in elementary school for blind people, showed us the different tactile tools which she uses with children with visual impairment. She demonstrated different objects with different textures and welcomed us to create an easter postal card in relief and with smell.

To conclude, these three intense days were very interesting and everyone learned a lot about braille and education. We are happy to have these experiences and feel more armed to teach visually impaired and blind students.

First Training of the Braille Challenge Project

OfficeViews — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:53:06 +0000

By Loredana Dicsi

From December 13 to 17th a small group of people from Belgium and Romania came together in Liège Belgium to discover the beauty and challenges of the well-known and so little known Braille alphabet. The group from the Republic of North Macedonia was unfortunately not able to join. People from outside the EU coming to Belgium had to quarantine for ten days. The training duration was less then 10 days.

The training was designed for teachers and other staff in school working with children and those who could potentially work with blind and partially sighted children in inclusive education.

The first day we had the opportunity to get to know each other and get into dynamic of the group. The second day we had the chance to meet also our third partner who is in fact the coordinator of the project, the North Macedonian organisation, and we learnt all about the project. Then we went to show our partners our local association for the Blind that has also a department that is in charge of assisting blind and partially sighted following education in mainstream classes.

The third day we started with some session where two guest joined us online. The president of the Dutch Braille Authority, who explained us their work in the Dutch Speaking area of Belgium and the Netherlands, to ensure that the Braille is the same in each school and that those using in other contexts are using the correct one. Then the chair of the Braille working group of the European Blind Union explained the aims and the work of the recently formed group. The Braille Working Group aims to promote Braille at European level and ensure its place in the lives of blind and partially sighted children young people adults and elderly.

Then we started to really work to get to know braille, until the end of the training. We discovered different writing tools and how to write Braille, how to read it and all kind of braille and tactile books for children and adults. And of course, very important a session was dedicated to pre-braille activities. These activities aim to help the tactile sense and the motoric sense to facilitate writing and reading. We could not end the project without a very nice activity, making Greeting cards that were tactile. And of course, there was also a session about what means to be blind or partially sighted and our sighted colleagues had to count on us blind and partially sighted to be guided around the youth hostel were we stayed.

During the Breaks and other free moments, we had also the opportunity to exchange, ideas, thoughts and get to know better each other.

I personally found it a very successful training despite the last-minute changes we needed to do because of the pandemic. I’m looking forward for the next steps.

ADD@ME Join-Staff Training Event, Warsaw (Poland)

OfficeViews — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 08:02:37 +0000

One of the main activities of the ADD@ME project is the joint staff training event which was held in Warsaw between August 31^st and September 5^th.

In a nutshell, the ADD@ME project aims at empowering young people with a Visual impairment (youngsters with Vi) to become KEY PLAYERS IN PROCESSES concerning THEIR OWN SOCIAL INCLUSION at EU level.

The short-term joint staff training allowed youth workers (from Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania and Poland) to:

• Familiarize and test at international level the Intellectual Output 1-Blended Training Programme (a training handbook with innovative and adapted non-formal learning methods and e-modules with the aim to empower and boost Vi youngsters’ self-confidence to become active citizens and participate actively in the society) for Visually Impaired Youngsters;

• Collect feedbacks from participants to replicate the training in the future so to transfer these skills to more Vi youngsters even after the project end, as well as to be able to train new youth workers on the use of the Blended Training Programme (multiplier effect);

Increase skills and knowledge of the involved youth workers through the new and adapted methodologies they will learn and share during the training, that they can apply in their daily work with the youngsters with Vi;
Give youth workers dealing with visual impairment a chance to meet, share experiences and best practices at EU level and create a permanent EU network of youth workers dealing with visual impairment;
Give youth workers a chance to experience a context which promotes solidarity and Non-Discrimination, in a multicultural and non-formal setting.

Except very full days of learning with our colleagues, we did try some Polish food like the yummy Pierogi and visit the old city center of Warsaw.

If you are interested by this project, do not hesitate to join us in one of the following events. We are looking for participants for the next events in Belgium, so come back to us if you wish to take part and/or want to help in any way.

Second Transnational Meeting of Ammbassadors of Diversity and Non-Discrimination Project

OfficeViews — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:16:07 +0000

Right before the summer holidays our team traveled to Greece. The second transnational meeting of the ADD@ME project ; Ambassadors of Diversity and non-Discrimination took place in Thessaloniki on the 10th of July 2021.

The meeting venue was provided by Syzoi. The coordinator The Italian Blind Union (UICI) [Italy] together with the partnering organisations, VIEWS International [Belgium], FDO [Spain], University of Thessaly [Greece], Polish Union for the Blind [Poland] and OFENSIVA TINERILOR ASOCIATA [Romania] had the time to gather and talk about the progress of the project.

The three [3] main intellectual outputs were thoroughly discussed, new ideas were found and constructive conversations were held. New tasks and responsibilities were also shared amongst the partners. Additionally, the team had the time to arrange the next steps and plan for the future. Part of these plans is the upcoming training event which will take place in Poland from the 31st of August to the 4th of September 2021.

Overall the meeting ran smoothly as expected and it concluded in a very positive tone.