Training course - Cooperate and Escape - Spain

Training course: Cooperate and Escape: Educational Escape Rooms to Fight Youth Unemployment

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: 20 – 26 September 2019

Number of participants: 22 participants

Participating countries: UK, Spain, Estonia, Ukraine, Czech republic, Turkey, France, Romania, Georgia, Moldova

Organizer: La Víbria Intercultural

Apply here: Application form – only for UK participants.

If you are from other countries, please contact here:

Czech Republic: projects@beinternational.cz, Filip.gabor@gmail.com
Spain: info@vibria.org
Estonia: olalla@shokkin.org, vassiljev.pavel@gmail.com
Ukraine: ngo.nfe.4y@gmail.com
Turkey: gemlik.eu@gmail.com
Georgia: info@i4dc.ge
France: echanges@hors-pistes.org
Romania: ahead.romania@gmail.com
Moldova: info@millenium.md

Deadline: 16 August 2019, selected immediately given good applicant profile.

Inquiries about this training course: Justinas at hello@abroadship.org

Costs: training course is funded by Erasmus+:

100% accommodation, food and program materials are free, covered by the grant from Erasmus+
100% traveling costs are covered, up to the maximum expenses:
- €20 / participant for Spain
- €180 / participant for France
- €275 / participant for UK, Czech Republic, Romania
- €360 / participant for Ukraine, Estonia, Turkey, Moldova
- €360 / participant for Georgia
Programme fee is €70, payable immediately after acceptance €45/£40 and €25 in Spain.

Cooperate and Escape

With this project we are seeking to develop competences of youth workers/leaders to work with educational escape rooms and the topic of employability. The issue behind this topic is youth unemployment which is still high in many countries across Europe.

Alongside education and professional trainings, employers are looking for soft skills in the potential workers, among them creative and critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, teamwork. These skills enlarge competitiveness of young people on labour market and thus increase their employability potential. This set of skills is usually acquired through real life work and often through gaming techniques and methods. Thus, we decided to develop a project which would equip youth workers with tools to foster soft skills of young people they work with through educational portable and outdoor quest games (POEQ). Quest games, or escape rooms, involve a team of people working together in order to fulfil challenging mental, logical, at times physical tasks together under a specific time limit. The format so popular in the entertainment field gives a great foundation to test young people’s team work, effective communication, problem-solving, creative thinking skills. With this training course we want to discover connection of quest games with soft skills development for employability of young people.
In this way, the objectives of the project are:

to exchange practices and methods of soft skill development through youth organizational activities;
to introduce the concept of POEQ as a methodology for developing soft skills of young people;
to equip participants with tools and frameworks for developing educational POEQ games;
to train participants in debriefing educational game activities and fostering self-assessment in young people;
to provide space for designing and testing educational portable and outdoor escape quests;
to create a set of educational POEQ games that foster soft skill development in young people;
to empower youth workers/ leaders to use POEQ games while working with youth.

Participant profile

The training course is designed for youth leaders, youth workers, trainer, teachers, educators, NGO volunteers, game enthusiasts. Ideally participants are involved in youth work or education of young people daily/weekly. Participants do not need to have any previous experience with escape rooms but have strong will and motivation to learn about game-based learning and be open to experiment with the given methodology. Participants have to be official residents in the country partnering in the project, be above 18 years of age, have a good command of English language, be ready to participate in the full program and commit to the dissemination activities.

Training programme

The training course will be intense and will include 4 practical sessions of 90 minutes per day with designated 60 minutes of reflection. The training is designed to produce physical results (portable or outdoor escape quests), so there will be very little free time during the week with optional times in the evenings to work in groups. The training program will cover introduction to game- based learning, escape room principles, educational quest design, practical sessions on creating own game concepts, testing the concepts, documenting games and reflecting on the application of such methodology in work with youth. As a result we foresee to create and test educational escape rooms as well as to create a resource manual for youth workers & youth leaders to use.

Failure to participate in a minimum of 80% of the content sessions or inappropriate behaviour might resolve in reimbursement not being given to the participants with a notice provided to the sending organization or exemption of the participant from the course.

Venue

The venue is located in the heart of the Collserola Park near Barcelona City, a place with 5 hectares of gardens, forests, sports fields, with a swimming pool and exceptional environment. Participants will be host in rooms of 4 and 10 beds with toilet, each bed has a locked cabinet at the foot of it, mirrors, shelving, individual light and plug. Free WI-FI will be available on the territory, blankets and towels will be provided.

The hostel makes an important task of social and labour Integration, as it is the first European catering service where 90% of its workforce is made up of workers with disabilities, primarily mental. The food will be provided for us on spot as well. But to let us know about your special diet or nutrition needs, please fill in this form!

The contact details of the venue:
INOUT Hostel Barcelona https://www.inouthostel.com/en/
Address: Major del Rectoret, 2 Barcelona

Plan Your Trip

The closest airport is Barcelona-El Prat , but you can also check other airports as Girona or Reus that are well connected with Barcelona (1 hour bus).

From Barcelona Airport to the hostel

Take the AEROBUS to Plaça Catalunya (25 minutes, 5.90€), once there check for the train lines FGC (Ferrocarrils Catalans) and take the line S1 or S2 till Baixador de Vallvidrera station (15 minutes, 2.20€). Once there, leave by the door that indicates “Barri del Rectoret” and follow the road to the right. You have to walk up the mountain about 5-8 minutes until you will find the reception of the INOUT Hostel.

Please, try to arrive to the hostel around 16:00 at the 20th of September. The program will start already on the first day and it is important that all the participants arrive by the start.

Please notice that during the project we are NOT going to visit Barcelona due the short time, if you are interested in it you can do it on your own, at your arrival (if you arrive early enough) or on the departure day (if you have enough time before your flight). You can choose your flight maximum 2 days before OR after the project. But the accommodation and food for extra days will not be covered by the project.

Insurance

It is mandatory to have a valid travel and medical insurance (i.e. European Health Insurance Card) during your travel. The host organization will not cover any personal health costs. If you need help with this, please contact your sending organization.

Reimbursement

Your travel expenses will be reimbursed 3 months after the end of the project. There are few rules to follow:

You must travel in the most cost efficient way available to you.
Car trips/ taxis cannot be reimbursed.
You must supply all the original travel documents (receipts, invoices, tickets and boarding passes) for BOTH your journeys.

Digital copies of travel documents are also useful, so please email them to us.

After going back home, you should send the original remaining boarding passes and any other documents from return journey by post to:
La Vibria Intercultural
Av. Jacquard 1
08222, Terrassa (Barcelona) Spain

Maximum travel costs to be reimbursed:

- €20 / participant for Spain
- €180 / participant for France
- €275 / participant for UK, Czech Republic, Romania
- €360 / participant for Ukraine, Estonia, Turkey, Moldova
- €360 / participant for Georgia

What to bring and prepare

Promotional materials: flyers, posters, booklets, publications etc. from your organisation and from your city.
Personal hygiene products: gel, shampoo, toothbrush, etc.
Some typical food, drinks, music: during the coffee breaks we will have a chance to taste
typical snacks from your countries.
A mug to exchange. Yes, yes, a mug to drink tea or coffee, you can buy it or take it from
home, but you will exchange in a certain moment with someone else
Don’t forget to bring sun cream and swimsuit, as there is a swimming pool in the hostel
that can be used during the free time.
Positive energy and good mood!

There is a closed Facebook group for the project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/687386365058628/. Please, join it!