About the Project

Impact Lab for Youth Work was a 5-day Erasmus+ Training Course that brought together 24 youth workers, trainers, facilitators, and youth leaders from Romania, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Hungary, Czechia, Italy, France, Portugal, and Belgium to explore how to design more meaningful and impactful Youth Exchanges. Through the project, participants strengthened their competences in impact-oriented project design, non-formal education, learning recognition, evaluation, and international cooperation.

Through interactive workshops, simulations, group challenges, facilitation practice, reflection activities, and peer-learning sessions, participants explored how learning experiences can be intentionally designed to respond to young people's needs and create lasting change. They examined the role of impact, learning pathways, facilitation methods, learning recognition, and transfer in creating high-quality Erasmus+ projects.

The training course provided a collaborative and supportive environment where participants exchanged good practices, developed practical tools, and co-created the Impact Toolbox for Youth Workers. By the end of the project, participants returned home with new competences, concrete resources, and fresh inspiration to improve the quality, learning value, and long-term impact of Youth Exchanges and youth work initiatives in their local communities.

What We Aimed to Achieve

The project's goal was simple yet powerful:

To help youth workers create more meaningful and impactful Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges by strengthening their competences in learning design, non-formal education, facilitation, and learning recognition.

Objectives:

1. Increase participants' understanding of quality and impact in Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges by exploring impact as observable change and identifying the factors that contribute to meaningful learning outcomes.

2. Develop participants' ability to design Youth Exchanges as coherent learning journeys by connecting young people's needs, learning outcomes, learning processes, and non-formal education methods.

3. Strengthen participants' capacity to intentionally select, adapt, and facilitate non-formal education methods that promote inclusion, active participation, effective reflection, and meaningful learning experiences.

4. Improve participants' competence in making learning visible through reflection, competence development indicators, Youthpass, evaluation tools, and other learning recognition processes.

5. Equip participants with practical tools and strategies to support learning transfer, dissemination, and the long-term impact of Youth Exchanges within their organisations and local communities.

What Happened During the Training Course

The training course began with icebreakers, team-building activities, and community-building sessions that helped participants get to know each other, establish trust, and create a supportive international learning environment. Participants shared their experiences in youth work, explored their expectations, and laid the foundation for meaningful collaboration throughout the week.

Through interactive workshops, simulations, facilitation practice, group challenges, and reflection activities, participants explored the key elements of designing impactful Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges. They examined what impact means in youth work, how learning journeys can be intentionally designed, how non-formal education methods can be selected and facilitated effectively, and how learning can be recognised and made visible through reflection and Youthpass.

A central element of the training course was the co-creation of the Impact Toolbox for Youth Workers. Each day, participants transformed their learning into practical resources by developing and validating tools that support impact-oriented project design, learning pathway planning, method selection, learning recognition, and follow-up planning.

Intercultural learning and peer exchange played an important role throughout the programme, as participants shared experiences, challenges, and good practices from their organisations and countries. A field study visit also provided opportunities to connect learning with the local context and reflect on how different environments can enrich educational experiences.

In the final stages of the training course, participants focused on learning transfer, dissemination, and the exploitation of results. They developed plans for applying the newly acquired competences and tools within their organisations and local communities, ensuring that the impact of the training would continue beyond the mobility itself. Through the entire learning journey, participants strengthened their competences in facilitation, non-formal education, project design, evaluation, reflection, and international cooperation, while gaining practical tools to improve the quality and impact of future Youth Exchanges.

Outcomes and Impact

The impact of Impact Lab for Youth Work did not end with the training course itself. A central objective of the project was to ensure that the knowledge, tools, and competences developed during the mobility would continue to support youth work practice long after participants returned home.

One of the key outcomes of the training course was the creation of the Impact Toolbox for Youth Workers, a practical collection of tools designed to help youth workers plan, facilitate, evaluate, and maximise the impact of Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges. Participants were encouraged to apply these tools in their organisations, share them with colleagues and partners, and integrate impact-oriented approaches into their future projects.

Through the project's Dissemination and Exploitation of Results (DEOR) activities, participants organised local and international dissemination events, presentations, workshops, podcasts, and peer-learning sessions, reaching youth workers, young people, educators, and other stakeholders. By sharing the project's results and good practices, they contributed to raising awareness about quality youth work, non-formal education, learning recognition, and impact-oriented project design.

These follow-up activities ensured that the learning continued beyond the mobility, strengthening the visibility and long-term impact of the project while supporting the development of more meaningful and impactful Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges across Europe.

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