You are a Star was a youth Exchange for youngsters between
14 and 17 years-old coming from Spain and Finland. It was created and
implemented as a cooperation between Brisa Intercultural and Kauhajoki
4H-Association.
The topic covered in the exchange was sustainable
entrepreneurship. The activities included workshops based on non-formal
education methods about topics such as marketing, negotiations skills, sustainability,
public speaking… In this youth exchange youngsters acquired competencies on
soft skills needed to start their own ventures, as well as the self-confidence to
do it.
The first activity of the project took place in Miranda de
Ebro from the 21st to the 27th of February. The second activity will be held in
Kauhajok (Finland).
DAY 1: 22.02.2020
The first day of the activity was for most participants
their first contact with an international group. We had workshops focused on learning
the names, getting to know each other, and braking the ice. Participants shared
their expectations, fears and hopes with the group and worked on creating together
a set of guidelines for a good work and living environment during the week.
The project learning process will be reflected through a
YOUTHPASS, a document that participants will receive on the last day of the
project and in which the knowledge acquired during the week will be specified.
The young people will participate in reflecting what knowledge and competencies
they acquired, so to facilitate this work, the participants received their
«Learning Diaries» on the first day of the activity.
During the free time, after dinner, the group visited a
local fair and the Finnish participants had the opportunity to taste some
traditional Spanish sweets.
DAY 2: 23.02.2020
The main theme of the exchange is entrepreneurship, so the
second day began by introducing basic concepts about the topic through the game
«word salad» and the traditional game «the handkerchief».
To develop creativity and innovation, we held a simulation
game: the participants divided in groups acted as researchers from a well known
company who had to work on solving global problems with simple and innovative
ideas. In this way, the «2 in 1 coca-cola», «magical, ecological
spray», «stopcorona.net» and «toyota clean box»
emerged.
In the afternoon we explored the skills that an “ideal entrepreneur”r
must have: in groups we designed the ideal person who would gather all those
skills, knowledge and motivation and created the team’s resume.
Then the same groups participated on the “Entrepreneurial Olympic
Games” where they “compited” in 4 categories: risk assessment, time management,
strategic thinking, and thinking outside the box.
DAY 3: 24.02.2020
The third day started with a strategy game. The group was
divided into four teams (“companies”) that had to make decisions (choose
between option A and option B) to gain the maximum possible benefit. However,
the decisions made by the rest of the “companies” impacted the final result of
your choice. Team representatives negotiated to decide the strategy they should
take. When we finished, we did a group reflection on the results of the game
and we did several outdoor activities to recharge energies after an intense
workshop!
In the afternoon, we visited the city of Burgos where we
went “wall climbing”, and after the Spanish team did a city tour.
DAY 4: 25.02.2020
On Tuesday morning we visited the castle and gardens of
Miranda de Ebro and walked around the city. The participants had a “treasure hunt”
which took them to the most emblematic places of the city.
In the afternoon we participated in the «Game of
Marketing», a dynamic that allowed participants to create their own prototypes
of a product that would help an entrepreneur in their daily life. Participants learned how to share information
about a product in a way that is attractive to the buyer and designed a model
of our prototype.
DAY 5: 26.02.2020
The first session in the morning consisted of a workshop on
social entrepreneurship. Participants understood the concept of social
entrepreneurship and investigated how certain social companies engage in it.
After a short break we divided into national groups and investigated the needs
of our local communities. We designed a sustainable social company that solved
one of these needs.
In the afternoon participants discovered different
opportunities provided by the Erasmus + program such as the Youthpass, youth exchanges,
training courses or the European Solidarity Corps.
The last session of the exchange was an evaluation in which
we studied how to improve the quality of future projects through the opinions
of the participants. We distributed the Youthpass certificates and wrote sweet “see
you soon” messages to our partners.