We started our very first group activities in the Find your way to the world of work project, mentoring youth with difficulties, aiming to reduce early school leaving, helping unemployed young people to settle on the labor market and to reduce emigration in Mureș and Harghita county of Romania.
Besides mapping and involving young people in the project, the second pillar is to collaborate and build relationships with vocational training institutions and vocational schools, strengthen teachers’ pedagogical tools for the integration of disadvantaged students, promote school diversity and develop the students’ career guidance skills.
As a first step in achieving this aim, we have settled a partnership with the highly experienced Osonó Theater, certified as a Registered Talent Point and European Talent Point, to run the professional programs. Two members of the troupe, Fazakas Misi and Mucha Oszkár held workshops on theater education, self-awareness, personality development, communication, competence building and team building for youth and teachers from three cities in Romania.
We are glad we could realize these workshops in five schools: Fogarasy Mihály Vocational School in Gyergyószentmiklós, Puskás Tivadar Vocational School in Gyergyóditró, Avram Iancu Technological School in Târgu Mureş and two schools in Odorheiu Secuiesc: the Eötvös József Vocational School and the Bányai József Technical Vocational School. The teachers of these schools also participated in a three-day training in Odorheiu Secuiesc.
It was nice to see the members of the troupe transforming the classrooms into a motivating environment in which the youngsters were moving, welcoming the tasks with fun and interest. Each task, game helped to find a solution to a real-life question with their own thoughts. During the games, the youngsters were able to experience situations that they had to solve themselves using different strategic methods. It was good to see that the young people were thinking and working together for achieving a common solution and with time were able to make better and better decisions. By listening to each other and working conscientiously, they also experienced that together they could succeed. They had the opportunity to play with theatrical techniques and thus to deeply experience certain emotions.
Teachers from the above-mentioned schools were also given the opportunity to attend an entire weekend training session, also held by the Osonó Theatre. The pedagogues had the opportunity to try out themselves in self-knowledge and communication situations. Based on the feedback we have received, they had a fruitful weekend. They can use the experience gained as an alternative method in their further work.
The workshops and trainings took place for the first time, but in the future the schools will be visited by these professionals on a monthly basis and there will be trainings for teachers every year.
The project “Find your way to the world of work” is funded by the EEA and Norway Grants and its objective is to support disadvantaged young people between 15 and 29 years old to have equal access to education and quality jobs.
