The Impact of the International Training and Co-‐operation activities

The Impact of the International Training and Co-‐operation activities

RESEARCH REPORT

Authors: Laimonas Ragauskas and Nerijus Kriauciunas With the support of the Agency of International Youth Cooperation (Lithuanian National Agency

of the Youth in Action Programme)

2009 Vilnius

The research report of the impact of training and co-‐operation activities from 2006 to 2008

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1. INTERNATIONAL TRAINING AND CO-‐OPERATION ACTIVITIES Training and co-‐operation plan The training and co-‐operation plan (TCP) is the constitutive part of the annual activity plan of every National Agency, which administrates the implementation of the Youth in Action Programme. It consists of different activities that reflect the general aims of the Youth in Action Programme, its specific objectives and the implementation of permanent, annual and national priorities on the national and European level. By creating opportunities to learn, improve, find partners and successfully cooperate with them, the Training and cooperation plan becomes one of the main tools for ensuring the quality of the Youth in Action projects. Often National Agencies employ the Training and cooperation plan to better adapt to changes and the demands in the field of youth activity or youth work. In this way the plan contributes to the implementation of the national or European youth policy. The main goals of the Training and co-‐operation plan are:

• Developing and enhancing the actions and sub-‐actions of the programme • Encouraging and improving the quality of the projects • Supporting the partner finding and co-‐operation • Implementing permanent, annual and national priorities of the „Youth in Action“

programme • Supporting and implementing the main features of the „Youth in Action“ programme • Developing the competences of youth workers • Developing the capacities of youth organizations.

The Training and co-‐operation plan consists of different international and national activities (training courses, seminars, partnership building activities, study visits, evaluation meetings etc.) that take place in Lithuania as well as in other countries that take part in the activities of the programme. The TCP budget and the number of activities and participants throughout the years 2006-‐20081 (Agency of International Youth Cooperation):

Year Number of activities Number of participants Budget (in euros) 2006 49 1738 160742 2007 60 1037 152625 2008 80 6049 162294

1 In 2006 and 2008 the European Youth Week events in Lithuania were organized by using funds of the Training and co-‐operation plan. 956 (in 2006) and 5237 (in 2008) participants took part in those events in Lithuania. The number of participants excluding those who participated in the Youth week was 782 (in 2006) and 812 (in 2008).


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Statistics and type of activities

From 2006 to 2008 Agency of International Youth Co-‐operation has sent 200 youth leaders and youth workers to different international training and co-‐operation events2 that took place in different countries (considering each year separately, 69 persons participated in 2006, 52 in 2007, and 78 in 2008). A total of 112 respondents participated in the research, 109 of which fully filled in the research questionnaire, which constitutes more than a half (54%) of the total number of participants who took part in international events of the National Agency in 2006-‐2008. Therefore this research is valid and represents the opinion of the majority of participants. In accordance to the year of participation, the respondents distributed in the following manner:

Fig. 1. Distribution of respondents according to the year of participation in the TCP activities

According to the type and the particularity of coordination, 4 groups3 of training and co-‐operation activities can be distinguished:

• Group A – permanent training courses – International training courses (e.g. BiTriMulti, SOHO, TicTac, Appertiser, GiN, etc.) that are being constantly organized by the Network of National Agencies. These events are different in a sense that they are related to a specific measure of the „Youth in Action“ programme, they are directed at new members of the programme, have a standardized program and are being implemented on the regular basis.

2 Agency of International Youth Cooperation, data of reports of 2006, 2007, 2009 3 This distribution is based on the subjective opinion and personal experience of the authors of this research and is therefore limited. However, in order to identify the factors that determine the impact a decision was made to investigate whether the type of activity has important influence on the impact of a activity.

2006 30%

2007 16%

2008 54%

DistribuTon of respondents according to the year of parTcipaTon in the TCP acTviTes


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• Group B – thematic training events – mostly single thematic training courses (e.g. „Theatre, as a means of communication in youth work“, „Dialogue Among Civilizations“ etc.), organized by National Agencies and/or SALTO Resource Centers. These events are different in a sense that they mostly happen only once. Directly involved National Agencies have an opportunity to influence the content of the event.

• Group C – language courses – training courses characterized by special focus on the improvement of foreign language competences of youth leaders and youth workers. It also familiarise them with the opportunities and specifics of international youth work.

• Group D -‐ seminars, study visits, meetings – events that aim at providing the opportunity for youth leaders and youth workers to meet, share experience and make connections for further co-‐operation (e.g. contact making seminar, study visits, Youth Week events, etc.).

2. THE IMAPCT OF THE TRAINING AND CO-‐OPERATION ACTIVITIES In order to define the impact of international training and co-‐operation events the study4 of Otten ir Fennes (2008) was taken into consideration, in which quality aspects of non-‐formal education and training in European youth work are discussed. Arnold (1997), Gruber and Schlögl (2007) refer to long-‐term impact as one of the quality aspects of non-‐formal education and training. This impact is specified as:

• Achievement of educational objectives; • Personal and professional development; • Acquirement of competences and satisfaction with acquired knowledge, skills and

attitudes; • Ability, motivation and commitment to apply the acquired competences in further

learning and work (Otten and Fennes, 2008, p. 21-‐22)

The authors of the present research, in accordance to the study referred above as well as considering the specific goals of the research as well as having evaluated its particular nature, have defined the impact of the training and co-‐operation activities by mapping out the following areas:

• Achievement of the general goals of „Youth in Action“ programme5; • Development and application of new methodical competence; • Discovering and dissemination of new opportunities;

4 Fennes H. and Otten H (2008), Quality in non-‐formal education and training in the field of European youth work, accessed at (2009.09.19) http://www.salto-‐youth.net/trainercompetencestudy/ 5 Although training events of the year 2006 took place in the framework of the „Youth“ programme, its general goals were basically the same as those of the “Youth in Action” programme. Further, during the training events of 2006 a preparation for the implementation of a new programme had already started.


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• Establishing and maintaining contacts • Implementation of activities and projects

3. RESEARCH DESCRIPTION The main aim of this research was to determine the impact of international training and co-‐operation activities based on participants’ evaluation. The additional aim of the research was to identify factors, which determine the impact. The impact of activities was investigated in the areas which were mentioned earlier. In order to identify factors which determine the impact the importance of the following aspects were studied:

• Type of event for the achievement of the aims of „Youth in Action“ programme, improved methodical comprehension, establishment of new contacts;

• Earlier experience in „Youth“ or „Youth in Action“ programme of a person or an organization for discovering new opportunities and implementation of new activities, improved methodical comprehension, establishment of new contacts and creation of new projects;

• The influence of age on improved methodical comprehension and creation of new projects.

In order to achieve these aims, a quantitative research was designed and carried out. The course of the research was the following:

1. Defining the impact of training and co-‐operation activities and framing the research methodology

2. Creating a contact data basis of the entire research sample 3. Creating, testing and improving of the set of research instruments 4. Implementing the research 5. Repeated collecting of missing research data 6. Analysing the research data and completing the research report

The research aimed at surveying at least half of youth leaders or youth workers who were sent to training and co-‐operation activities by the Agency of International Youth Co-‐operation from the year 2006 to 2008. The research was carried out from July to August of the year 2009 by means of an electronic questionnaire (see Appendices). Invitation to participate in the research was sent via e-‐mail. The target group was repeatedly encouraged to take part in the research at the middle of the run of the research. By the end of the research, i.e. at the beginning of September, several groups of the sample in which the participation was below the desirable minimum of at least half of participants, were repeatedly encouraged to take part in the research by phone. Two programs were used for the data analysis and the graphic representation of the results: SPSS and MS Excel.


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The research process revealed several aspects that determined the limitation of the research:

1. Out-‐dated contact information became a barrier for reaching a wider proportion of the sample

2. Individual and exclusive experience of every activity limited the possibility of exploring a more detailed impact according to different types of specific training events. It also made it more difficult to make conclusions on what type of activities are more effective, because some of the specific purposed activities have nevertheless fallen into the established categories.

3. Individual learning experience. Quantitative research method allowed collecting general information on the impact of international activities, but it failed to allow investigation of subjective experiences and individual needs.

4. RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH

4.1. Demographic data

Fig. 2. Distribution according to respondents’ age during an activity

Respondents were grouped into four categories according to the age group: under 18 (these constituted a minority, since most of the international training activities have 18 as the minimum age requirement), 18 to 22 (mostly students), 23 to 30 years old and over 30. Figure 2 shows that 80% of the respondents were aged from 18 to 30. In terms of the respondents’ gender, more than two thirds of them were females. It reflects a highly noticeable tendency that youth activities and youth work attracts more girls and women.

bellow 18 5%

18-‐22 40%

23-‐30 40%

31 and above 15%

DistribuTon according to respondents’ age during an acTvity


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In addition, having analysed the entire sample the same distribution according to gender was found.

Fig. 2 Distribution according to gender

Having analyzed the geographic distribution of respondents, the results suggested that participants from the largest towns of Lithuania constituted a large majority, i.e. as many as 68% of respondents (Fig. 4). In contrast, participants from small towns and countryside constituted solely 15% of the whole sample.

Fig. 4 Distribution of respondents according to their place of residence

Possible reasons for it include greater participation and concentration of organizations in larger towns as well as a more effective spread of information and wider experience on the part of

male 28%

female 72%

DistribuTon according to gender

68%

17%

15%

DistribuTon of respondents according to their place of residence

Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai ar Panevėžys other town small town or village


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participants, which allows completing a more successful application for participation in an international activity. However, this distribution should only be evaluated tentatively, since many participants might have marked their residence at the time of filling in the questionnaire, and not during the event itself. Also, some of the respondents were students, who reside in larger towns, but continue doing activities in their home-‐towns. In order to enhance the regional development of “Youth in Action” programme, an attention should be given to the applications of participants from smaller towns in order to give them an opportunity to take part in activities that National Agency sends to. Simplified information and linguistic assistance might also come in handy. In order to identify the relation between participants, experience of an organization and the possible impact of activity, the authors of the research asked the respondents to indicate whether the training activity was the first experience of such kind, and whether the participant and his/her organization have taken advantage of the opportunities of “Youth” and “Youth in Action” programmes before the activity.

Fig. 5. Distribution of respondents according to the previous participation experience

YES 47%

NO 53%

DistribuTon of respondents according to the previous parTcipaTon experience


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Fig. 6. Distribution of respondents according to the use of opportunities of „Youth“ and „Youth

in Action“ programmes before the activity

Fig. 7. Distribution of respondents according to their organizations‘ experience in „Youth“ and

„Youth in Action“ programmes A little less than half of the respondents had never participated in this type of activity before (Fig. 5), while two thirds of the respondents and their organizations have already used the opportunities of the “Youth” and “Youth in Action” (Fig. 6) programmes. It is likely that some people find out about international training activities at the time of participation in other “Youth in Action” activities (e.g. youth exchange, youth initiatives etc.).

YES 68%

NO 32%

DistribuTon of respondents according to the use of opportuniTes of „Youth“ and „Youth in AcTon“

programmes before the acTvity

YES 71%

NO 29%

Did your organisaTon take advantage of opportuniTes of the programme before your

parTcipaTon in the acTvity organised by the Agency?


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4.2. The impact International training activities of “Youth in Action” programme aim at improving the quality of the projects which they fund as well as raising the qualification of youth workers. Therefore we aimed at finding out to what extent the participation in an international activity helped the participants to achieve the aims of the “Youth in Action” programme. The diagram in Fig. 8 shows how many respondents agree with the statements provided on the right hand side.

Fig. 8. Impact of the activity on the personal and professional levels in relation to the

programme's objectives

Here we can see that the respondents‘ opinion distributed mostly on the first statement, which is related to the first objective and priority of the „Youth in Action“ programme, which is promoting young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular: 40 respondents fully agreed with the statement, other 40 most likely agreed with the statement, 22 respondents neither agreed, nor disagreed, and 6 respondents most likely disagreed with it. The remaining three statements have received a fairly positive response – more than 90% of respondents indicated that they fully agree, or most likely agree with the

0 0 0 0 6 4 3 3 22

9 8 11

41 50

31 23

41 47 68 73

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

The acqvity empowered me to encouradge acqve ciqzenship of young people, especially

European ciqzenship

The acqvity empowered me to develop young people's sense of

solidarity and promote tolerance

The acqvity empowered me to promote the

mutual understanding between young people from different countries

The acqvity empowered me to support young

people's acqvity, quality of youth work and

improve the acqviqes of my organisaqon in the

youth field

Respon

s e ra

te

The impact of the acTvity on the personal and professional levels in relaTon to the programme's

objecTves

completely dissagree more likely dissagree neither agree nor dissagree

more likely agree completely agree


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provided statements. Approximately 85% of respondents stated that the activity empowered them to better implement the general aims of the “Youth in Action” programme. While sending participants to international training activities there is often an expectation that they would afterwards undertake activities related to the main topic of the activity. 66% of participants revealed that they have undertaken that kind of activities (Fig. 9).

Fig.9. Impact according to implemented activities, related to the main topic of the activity

Being asked of what specific activities they have undertaken having participated in an event that National Agency sent them to, the respondents could choose among five types of activities or indicate other activities. The diagram below reflects the activities, which were undertaken by the participants of the activity. The respondents were allowed to choose more than one type of activity, therefore the total amount of answers exceeds the amount of respondents.

YES 66%

NO 34%

Did you begin to implement youth acTviTes in relaTon to the main topic of the acTvity aeer taking

part in it?

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

30

16

7

20 17

Which kind of acTviTes did you begin to implement aeer taking part in the TCP acTvity?

Youth exchange

Youth iniqaqve

Youth democracy project

European voluntary service

Training and networking acqviqes


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Fig. 10. Types of implemented activities according to the measures of the „Youth in Action“ programme

109 respondents indicated that 90 projects have been implemented (or are in the process of implementation at the moment of filling in the questionnaire). Fig. 10 shows that one third of them are international youth exchange, 22% -‐ projects of the European voluntary service, 18% -‐ training and co-‐operation projects, and 17% -‐ local and international youth initiatives. An attempt was made to verify whether the implementation of projects following the activity depends on its type. However, no substantial dependence was found, therefore non of the activities showed statistically significant impact in terms of the number of implemented projects. It has to be noted, that activities taken up by participants might have been initiated by foreign partners, since having asked whether the participants of the event have created a specific project under the “Youth” or “Youth in Action” programme, which was directly or strongly related to their participation in the event, 39% of respondents replied positively (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Impact according to created projects

During the research, correlation (Pearson’s correlation index) between the number of created projects and the participants’ age was established and the dependence between the participants’ age and the number of implemented projects was found. It appeared that younger participants implemented relatively less projects. However, this dependence is not very strong (-‐0,194), and young respondents under 18 constituted solely 15% of the whole sample. Another criteria of the impact was the advancement of the participant’s methodical comprehension. As many as 97% respondents indicated that their methodical comprehension was developed as a result of participation in the training activity.

YES 39% NO

61%

Did you develop a project within the Youth or Youth in AcTon Programme aeer taking part in the TCP acTvity?


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Fig. 12. Impact according to the developed methodical comprehension

The majority of activities that the participants were sent to indicate helping the participants to use the opportunities of „Youth in Action“ programme as one of their goals. Depending on the activity, it can be training on specific measure (e.g. youth exchange or EVS projects) or on the subject of using the opportunities of the programme or by working on a particular topic or target group. Fig. 13 shows that as many as 81% of respondents have discovered new opportunities of the programme.

Fig. 13. Impact according to newly discovered opportunities of the “Youth” or “Youth in Action”

programmes No essential dependence was found between the type of activity and this area of impact.

YES 97%

NO 3%

Did you develop methodical comprehension and understanding of specific youth work methods

during the TCP acTvity?

YES 81%

NO 19%

Did you discover new opportuniTes of Youth or Youth in AcTon during the acTvity?


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Fig. 14. Comparison of activity types according to the number of participants, who discovered

new opportunities of the “Youth in Action” programme This research not only aimed at determining the impact on participants themselves, but also at finding out how they used the acquired knowledge afterwards in their organization or community. The participants were allowed to mark several answers. Fig. 15 below shows that 77 respondents (or 70%) shared their experience, 54% of respondents disseminated the information on the opportunities of the programme in their community, 43% of respondents indicated that they have played a role of advisors and helped other people to use the opportunities of the “Youth in Action” programme.

Fig. 15. The use of discovered opportunities

0%

50%

100%

A B C D

38 24 4

22

6 7 4

4

DisstribuTon accoding the type of acTvity and its impact on the newly discovered opportuniTes of the

programme

YES NO

0

20

40

60

80

77

47 59

Respon

se ra

te

How did you use the newly discovered opportuniTes of Youth or Youth in AcTon?

I shared experience of the newly discovered opportuniqes with my organisaqon I helped other people to benefit from the newly discovered opportuniqes I disseminated the informaqon about newly discovered opportuniqes within my community


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Another criteria of impact was beneficial contacts established with other participants of an activity. An attempt was made to find out whether any beneficial contacts were established and how they were used afterwards (Fig. 16). 93 respondents (85%) indicated that they have established beneficial contacts.

Fig. 16. Impact according to established beneficial contacts

Out of those, 82 respondents stated that they further maintain personal/professional contacts; 38 respondents stated that the beneficial relationship developed into a specific project of the “Youth in Action” programme; 26 respondents stated that following the activity the participants’ organizations have started an international co-‐operation.

Fig. 17. Types and continuity of established contact

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

YES 85%

NO 15%

Did you develop useful contacts with other parTcipants during the acTvity?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

26

38

83

Respon

dentų skaičius

What kind of contacts did you develop during the acTvity?

organisaqons started to cooperate

started to cooperate by implemenqng Youth or Youth in Acqon project(s)

maintain personal-‐professional relaqonships with parqcipants of the acqvity


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Conclusions

1. A generally positive impact of taking part in international National Agency activities was determined: approximately 85% of respondents stated that the activity empowered them to better implement the general aims of the “Youth in Action” programme; 66% of respondents indicated that they have undertaken activities related to the main topic of the activity and before this research 90 projects have been implemented as a result of participation in the activity. 39% of respondents revealed that they have created a specific project within the “Youth” or “Youth in Action” programme; 97% respondents indicated that the activity helped them to develop their methodical comprehension; 81% respondents indicated that they have discovered new opportunities; 85% of respondents stated that they have established beneficial contacts.

2. An attempt was made to determine the factors that enhance the positive impact of the participation in an activity. Also, the research aimed at verifying whether the type of activity, the participants’ experience, gender and residence have any influence, yet the data analysis did not show any statistical significance of these factors.

3. The research data revealed that participation in international training activities of National Agency lacks the balance in gender and residence representation. 72% of people sent were females, and 28% -‐ males; participants who were residents of larger towns constituted 68% of respondents.

Recommendations

1. As it was mentioned in the research methodology outline, the quantitative research had its limitations when it comes to determining the causes of the effect of a specific activity or its individual impact (e.g. how the learning experience was specifically used in practice). In order to determine the effect of each individual activity, individual qualitative researches should be conducted.

2. We suggest creating a continuous evaluation system for evaluating the impact of training activities, which would allow collecting, processing and evaluating the impact of participation in international training activities and making adequate conclusions while compiling the yearly Training and co-‐operation plan. Having a couple of years passed since the participation in the activity it becomes difficult to reach the respondents due to out-‐dated contact information. Also, the participants themselves find it difficult to identify the impact of an activity which they have partially forgotten.

3. We think that it would be worthwhile to find out what are the reasons for receiving fewer participants from smaller towns and countryside. A research of this kind would aim at framing adequate information, encouragement and support measures, which would ensure that youth leaders and youth workers who reside in less privileged areas


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of Lithuania have access to international training activities (often, a simplified information adapted to different target groups and linguistic assistance might help).

The Impact of the International Training and Co-‐operation activities

Documents

national activities

youth leaders

impact of training

cooperation plan tcp

different activities

european youth policy

competences of youth

field of youth activity