It was six the number of brave people from Burgos who took part in the ERASMUS+ project in the wonderful city of Ankara, Turkey, from 9th to 18th June.
An ERASMUS+, which can be either a Training Course, as was the case, or a Youth Exchange, gives young Europeans the opportunity to enjoy several days – varying between a week and 10 days – somewhere in Europe, with a specific topic to be developed through activities, dynamics and presentations involved in non-formal education.
The theme of this Training Course was Development of Youth Workers with Simulation, and where seven the nationalities that took part. In this way, young people from Spain, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania and Poland were involved in activities, simulations, games and exercises that allowed them to develop their “soft skills” and to consider their professional and working future.
Before the project, the Spanish team was able to enjoy a few days in the beautiful city of Istanbul, getting to know its streets and monuments, and soaking up the rich culture of the country. Here is a short report of the experience.
After this short break, we moved to Pursaklar, the neighbourhood of Ankara where the beautiful hotel where the Training Course would take place was located.
During the first few days, we did activities to learn each other’s names, to get rid of our fear of public speaking and to get to know each other a bit (we were 50 participants and it was not an easy task to learn each other’s names).
And once these first hours had passed, the activities and dynamics began to focus more on the theme of the project, without ever losing dynamism and interest: theatres, simulations of job interviews, presentations in small groups, debates, role-playing games, talks… were some of the activities that took place.
And we had a free day to visit the city of Ankara with the rest of the participants.
In addition, each night became the cultural night of a country. So, each day, after dinner, the participants from that country would talk and explain curiosities about their nation, show us some dances and cook something typical so that the rest of the participants could learn more about each othes the cultures.
And so the days flew by. The goodbye was hard, because 50 strangers became a small family in 10 days. But thanks to social media we will stay in touch for a long time.
In addition, at the end of the project we received a Youth Pass, an official certificate that credits the attendance to the Training Course and certifies the formal knowledge acquired.
It has been an incredible experience for the whole Spanish team. It has allowed us to develop both personally and professionally, and to have established links with young volunteers and young entrepreneurs/workers from countries all over Europe.
We will do it again!