Youth work professionals met from 22 to 24 July at the European Youth Centre Budapest on the invitation of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth work and the Salto Inclusion and Diversity Resource Centre.
Getting the most out of the high quality of mobility programmes
To make the most of the strong learning potential of international exchange measures in terms of personality development and skill improvement, it is vital to guarantee the high quality of mobility measures. This focus can make it considerably easier for practitioners to plan, organise, implement and evaluate international activities in formal and non-formal educational settings. Taking a quality perspective can also help to significantly increase the number of mobility activities on offer, enabling young people to participate in an international exchange programme at least once in their life.
New tools to support quality in international projects
In spring 2019, the European Platform on Learning Mobility (EPLM), which is coordinated by the Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe, launched two new tools designed to promote quality in international learning mobility projects – the result of four years of development by international partners. The Handbook on Quality in Learning Mobility describes 22 quality principles for mobility which are specified by 119 project cycle-indicators.
In addition, a user-friendly and intuitive web-based app known as Q!-App (www.qualitymobility.app/) was developed to help project organisers design international mobility measures with their partners according to the 22 quality principles detailed in the handbook. The principles can be applied in condensed form with the help of 16 questions in Q!-App. In addition to video tutorials, numerous practical exercises, suggestions, background information as well as practical material such as checklists and templates are provided for use by both beginners and advanced users.
Benefits of Q!-App
The texts that are written by project organisers and cooperation partners in Q!-App can be exported for use in funding applications, which saves time and safeguards quality. Previously implemented measures can also be evaluated on the basis of the quality principles by project organisers and, by invitation, also by cooperation partners, to assess the projects’ strengths and weaknesses. Q!-App hence gives project organisers a chance to learn from the experience and to include new insights in subsequent projects.
What have participants learnt?
During the two-day seminar, youth work practitioners, representatives of national and international youth work organisations and networks, trainers and young people who have taken part in mobility projects and benefited from funding became better acquainted with the two tools. They developed many creative ideas to improve the user-friendliness of both the handbook and Q!-App. They also discussed and developed strategies to promote and disseminate the tools. Among the ideas they came up with were online and offline train-the-trainer concepts, social media campaigns, illustrations, and badges visualising the skills of Q!-App users.
Note: There are plans to translate the English handbook and app (the latter currently available in English, Latvian, Dutch and Czech) into German and other languages.
For more information, contact Andrea Bruns on bruns(at)ijab.de.
