Talking Youth Work

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode, we had the privilege of speaking with Vika Matuzaitė, a non-formal education trainer and facilitator, who enlightened us about the concept of Queer Youth and how youth workers can support Queer young people.

In today’s world, there can be significant confusion surrounding this topic, where gender, identity, and sexuality are often erroneously treated as interchangeable terms.

It also happens ...

Dear listeners,

In this edition, we had the pleasure of conversing with Jan Lai, an expert in international youth mobility, non-formal education, youth work, digital literacy, and online learning. Jan is a passionate and restless soul who enjoys a good challenge.

During our chat, Jan shared how he initiated an esports* team with a group of young people in his hometown, Cagliari, with a modest budget.

*Esports, short for electronic...

 

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode, we talked to Snežana Bačlija Knoch, an educational consultant in the European youth field and a facilitator of learning for nearly two decades. She loves to create encouraging and inviting learning environments, facilitate action-oriented value-based learning, and experiment with (and sometimes create) different educational tools and approaches.

We started by trying to understand what creat...

Hello dear listeners,

This time our conversation was with Michael Kimming, an intercultural trainer, coach, online instructor and facilitator. Michael and other colleagues published an eBook called “How to Talk About War – Facilitating Learning in the Face of Crisis”, which became the topic of our conversation.

Michael was facilitating a workshop when the war in Ukraine began. Some of the participants were from the involved countr...

Hello dear listeners,

 In this episode, we talked with Paul Kloosterman, a youth worker and author of several publications for youth workers and facilitators. We heard Paul’s story of how he got involved in youth work, but the main topic of our talk was Self-Directed Learning.

As the name implies, self-directed learning it’s a process where individuals take responsibility for planning, continuing and evaluating their learning expe...

Hello dear listeners,

After more than a year, Talking Youth Work is back.

We did miss you. A lot! 

We hope you are doing well and are curious to learn about Youth Work with our guests.

This time we spoke with Niels Floor, a pioneer of the concept of Learning Experience Design.

Niels is a designer himself, and he brought the curiosity and problem-solving abilities of designers to the learning space.

How do we create a...

Dear listeners,

 

We spoke with Paavo Pyykönen who is a senior program advisor for the Finnish National Agency for the Erasmus+ Youth Program, an european funding line that supports youth work related projects.

 

Paavo talked about the importance of international youth exchanges, where youngsters can meet peers from other cultures, pursue their interests and grow together as individuals and as citizens. The job of the adults invol...

In this episode, we travel to Madeira's island to explore a new and exciting project: the Digital Nomad Village. We talked to Gonçalo Hall - the founder of the project - who had the project's idea while on an Erasmus+ project in Italy.   Gonçalo discovered digital nomadism six years ago, fell in love with remote work and became a remote work consultant. He also hosts a podcast called Remote Work Movement and started a few business...

Hello dear listeners,

First of all, we wish you a super 2021, as this is our first episode this year. To lighten up things we talked to Carmine Rodi, a trainer and standup comedian.

Sometimes humor is the best way to bring awareness to certain topics, and youth work has some particularities that Carmine explored in a very humorous way. In the work kit that youth workers and trainers use, comedy and humor can be very useful tools t...

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode we talked with Pedro Fabião, an international clown, actor, director, trainer, and psychologist.

​He directed the biggest professional clown organisation in Portugal (www.narizvermelho.pt), where he worked for 16 years.

The conversation was about the Art of Clowning and how it can help people develop empathy and self-awareness.

Clowns have had a function throughout the ages, as those that push...

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode we go green. We talked to Antonio Jovanovski, a trainer, an activist and a social entrepreneur. He is a member of the Pool of trainers of Youth@Work partnership (www.youthatworkpartnership.org) and the founder of a youth environmental NGO (www.gogreen.mk) where he works on training and policy development related to youth eco-activism, education for sustainable development and social inclusion ...

Hello dear listeners,

 

We are joined in this episode by Elin McCallum, one of the co-founders of Bantani Education, a non-profit organisation supporting entrepreneurial and creative learning. Elin is also a member of the Youth@Work Pool of trainers.

One of the topics of our talk was how to measure impact in youth work, from the example of the Youth@Work Partnership. We also talked about a model of entrepreneurial competencies (En...

Dear listeners, 

Hope summer treated you well. We did miss you, and we hope you are all doing well.

In this episode we talked to Nik Paddison from the UK, a trainer of trainers, youth workers and activists in the European youth field. For the last few years he has been working as a full time freelance trainer, writer and consultant.

The main topic was Facilitation of Learning and how it is a process that has to engage the learner ...

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode we talked with Maria-Carmen Pantea and Dunja Potočnik, members of the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR) who did important research in the field of youth employability and entrepreneurship for the Youth@Work Partnership.

Our conversation covered some of the tensions that the youth field faces regarding youth employability.

Although the younger generation is more educated, they are at a ...

Hello dear listeners,

In this episode, we talked with two very interesting women entrepreneurs: Angelica Perra and Barbara Földi, who are part of the Pool of Trainers of the Youth@Work Partnership that has placed women's entrepreneurship and economic empowerment among their 9 priorities - https://youthatworkpartnership.org/priorities/.

Angelica is one of the co-founders of TDM, an Italian NGO with a simple and ambitious idea: to h...

With this episode we are starting a special season powered by Youth@Work, a Partnership on Youth Employability and Entrepreneurship of Erasmus+ National Agencies .

In this episode we talked to Raluca Diroescu, the coordinator of Youth@Work.

Raluca likes to call herself a youth work supporter. A person that supports youth work like a fan that wants the team to win. Her love for youth work started during a youth exchange and we talk...

 

Hello dear listeners,

 In this episode we talked to Laimonas Ragauskas, a Lithuanian trainer and consultant in the field of Education, who has been involved in innovative online projects like  Cities of Learning, Trainers Appraisal and Badgecraft.

 We are living a particular time with the COVID-19 pandemic and all the lockdowns around the world, so it made sense to talk about the digital acceleration that all of us had to underta...

Hello dear listeners,

"To create community, we need channels where different stakeholders share their points of view.” Mark Taylor

 Here is another episode that was a lot of fun to record. This time with Mark Taylor, editor of the only European online magazine focused on youth work: Coyote Magazine.

We wondered if youth workers live too much in their own bubble. This view - of youth work as a closed system - generates a dual think...

First of all is good to be back!

In this episode we talked with Jo Claeys, a youth worker and a trainer who together with Denis Morel and Simona Molari, developed the training "The Power of Non Formal Education".

We tried to better understand what is non formal education, how it relates to other types of education, the contact points with formal education, schools and what makes this type of learning so powerful.

Jo has a lot of e...