“COACH‘EM: Discovering Youth Coaching” was an international Erasmus+ Training Course organized by Shokkin Group Netherlands. The main activity of the project took place in Vierhouten (The Netherlands) during the period 27th September-5th October 2019. There were more than 30 participants who actively participated in the program. The objective of this project was to provide youth workers with coaching skills in order to empower them to become active citizens in the society and on the labour market.

I reached Vierhouten with a lot of surprising experiences during my journey by plane, train and bus. This was my first so varied travel. My sixth sense was telling me that something new was coming. The place that we stayed in looked like a huge tent in the center of a green field.  First meeting was with Ola from Poland then Gaia and Eda – hosts from the Netherlands who welcomed me as they had known me for a long time. It was truly amazing. Another new experience of already the first night was the intercultural evening,a food festival with different dishes from different countries. The best ones were from Turkey and Sweden – their snacks will stay in my mind for the next decade.

During our learning sessions trainers were amazing at providing us with the knowledge through the best and fun ways. Love this family! Everyday we were learning by means of non-formal education on sessions focused on a specific topic, group building activities, project idea challenge and socializing time in a friendly and open environment. We discussed the issue of goal setting, unemployment problem in Europe and we tried to find ways of supporting young people who want to create their own enterprises. All the days finished with reflections and giving each other feedback.

The last task was to attract and help young people who want to work in a multicultural environment, want to learn cultural variation, language, behavioral aspects, and business opportunities of different countries for their personal development as well as their career progress.”

Eftekhar Mohammad Rubel
Shokkin Group member and participant of “Coach’Em”

 

“I would like to tell you about my first International Training Course experience in the Erasmus+ Training Course “Coach’Em: Discovering Youth Coaching”. I am always keen on meeting new friends and gaining new ideas from them. It was a really great opportunity for me to meet with 34 people from 10 different countries.

The main objective of the project was to train ourselves as future coaches. I would like to introduce our trainers and the host team. Pavel, Fredric and Olalla were our trainers. Eda and Gaia were the host team. On the first day it was really difficult to remember everyone’s names, but with Pavel’s help it turned out to be very easy – we played many different games and managed to remember all names.

Next day in the morning the weather was really good so we started our session outside. We played the minefield game in order to practice our teamwork skills. Every morning we started the session with energizing games. One day we got a task to identify real-life problems for youth in Europe; we were divided into groups and later on we had to share the results of our research with all participants. It was really interesting to share my ideas and thoughts in front of everyone.

During the project we also had a free day in which we visited the Hoge Veluwe National Park. We enjoyed it a lot and we learned about some forest animal’s life. Another day Fredric and Pavel gave us a lot of learning materials on coaching tools and models, including a real session between a coach and a coachee. Then the hosting team invited some young people as coachees. It was really amazing to try to be a coach and help others to set a specific goal. That day was the best day. After finishing the session we cooked together and had a great dinner together. 

On the last day we got certificates – Youthpasses! It was a very sad moment for everyone because the course was finished and we were supposed to leave soon. I am sure that I will never forget friends that I’ve met during this project. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank Shokkin Group Estonia, the host team Eda and Gaia and to all the participants – everybody was so friendly and helpful!”

Imran Hassan Bappi
Shokkin Group member and participant of “Coach’Em”