7th until 17th of December 2017
Kannavia village, Nicosia District, Cyprus
Youth Exchange
Project Summary
The youth exchange ‘Career In Action’ was an international project under the Erasmus+. The project focused on career guidance of 42 unemployed young people or people that want to change their career direction, coming from
Italy, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain and Cyprus. During this youth exchange participants worked on developing and improving their communication, self-management and personal skills in order to increase their
employability. Also, they had the chance to share their own experience and good practice examples in order to learn from each other. Main objective of this youth exchange was to give participants the knowledge and skills needed these days in the environment of increased youth unemployment . Through workshops, discussions, simulation games, study visits and non-formal education activities we targeted to the personal and professional development of participants. With this way we also wanted to contribute in our own way to the decrease of youth unemployment, one of the main priority of Europe.
Project Results
During the 8 days of the projects, participants undertook several exercises, workshops and role games that lead to career guidance toward existing professions.
A particular set of activities were designed to help participants to identify their ideal job. After a personality test, the group had the chance to recognise their strengths and of course to identify what they like doing and what not. After that, a workshop on the most important skills that employers demand were presented that aided participants to realise which parts of their personalities need to be improved. Moving on, an activity on goal settings was followed in order to put participants into consideration on how they will achieve their dream and find their ideal job. During this set of activities, the people involved had the chance to enhance the career guidance and career planning.
Additionally, participants had an one day workshop on public speaking. As communication is one of the most important employability skills, a special workshop was design for that. Each participant created a 20 seconds speech and the rest of the group gave feedback in order to share knowledge and experiences among them.
Job interviews, CV and cover letter preparation was also one of the subjects were covered during the youth exchange. Experts from MMC- Mediterranean Management Center Ltd and Cyprus Productivity Center arrived to the venue and talk to us on how to prepare an effective Europass CV and cover letter and how to attend a job interview. Using theory, practical exercises and role games, participants gained important knowledge and tips on the issue and improving their research and innovation skills.
An alternative workshop was prepared for this project, was a film making activity. Participants receive some basic information on that issue and then they created their own films that aim to motivate people to never give up and continue searching for a job relying on their skills. During this activity, participants improve their storytelling and digital skills and as followed, their creativity.
Moving on, another result that came out from this project is that participants increase the communication in foreign language and established European friendships and network among them. In order to encourage intercultural dialogue and bonding, we organised intercultural evening. During that, participants had the opportunity to share and to learn some history, food or dances from each country using interacting methods. We also created a board where we wrote some basics words and phrases in all the participants’ mother tongues and it was visible in the venue for the whole duration of the youth exchange.
At the end of this youth exchange, 42 participants became more motivated to improve their skills and start searching for their ideal job.
Here you can see the Facebook photo album that was created for the youth exchange CIA – Career In Action.
The following two videos are created by the participants with the aim to motivate more youth to never give up, rely on their skills and continue searching for their ideal job.
