From left: Youth Territorial Council President Ashille Brooks, St. Maarten Youth Parliament Secretary Aarin White and Lance Corporal Jonatan Faneyte of the 1st St. Maarten Boys’ Brigade.
ST. PETERS–Three young persons left for Bulgaria on Sunday, September 2, to attend a training course on social entrepreneurship.
St. Maarten Youth Parliament Secretary Aarin White, Youth Territorial Council President Ashille Brooks and Boys’ Brigade Lance Corporal Jonatan Faneyte are currently in the Uzana, Gabrovo, region of Bulgaria, for the training course, which runs September 4-12. The programme falls under the auspices of the Civic Education and Training Platform of Bulgaria and is funded by the Erasmus-plus programme of the European Union (EU).
Through this project participants and the participating organisations will gain skills that could be implemented as specific business and entrepreneurial tools to solve social problems, the St. Maarten Youth Council Association said in a press release on Wednesday. Participants will also be informed about the opportunities offered for developing social enterprises.
The training course will address concepts for developing and managing social enterprises; strategic planning; human resources and team management; financial management; a spiral of social innovation; management tools; start-up management; identifying stakeholders; leadership skills; personal qualities of the social entrepreneur; and development of social ideas.
The training course is being executed via the “Learning through experience” method – debates, simulations, energizers, ice-breakers, communication games, acquainting and sharing activities, group debates, coaching sessions, creativity, reflection and self-analysis, open space and others. The activities are based on the principles of experiential learning and the Kolb’s Cycle.
From left: Jonatan Faneyte, Aarin White, Ashille Brooks and Coordinator of CET Bulgaria Nikolay Nikolov.
The training course is designed to increase the capacity of the participating organisations in the management of social enterprises; to increase the level of key qualities and competences of the people occupying leadership positions or actively working in social enterprises; for accumulation of specific business and entrepreneurship tools for solving social problems; for sharing experience and setting up trained youth workers to work with marginalised and socially excluded young people; to exchange some experience and good practices between partner organisations; to provide participants with examples of successful businesses and manuals created by youth social entrepreneurs.
The St. Maarten Youth Council Association said it is partnering with the Caribbean Education and Cultural Foundation to include the youth of St. Maarten/St. Martin in partner projects through the Erasmus-plus network of partners. Erasmus-plus is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe, providing opportunities for more than four million Europeans to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad. Merging seven prior programmes, it has opportunities for a wide variety of individuals and organisations.
The local partnership has been extended to University of St. Martin (USM) for future collaboration for both local and international training courses and youth exchanges.
“USM is always looking for ways to enhance the overall academic experience of their students. Therefore, when the opportunity arose for their students to participate in upcoming Erasmus-plus exchanges facilitated by the St Maarten Youth Council Association, they rapidly embraced it,” the release said.
“These exchanges will provide unique possibilities for our students to experience new cultures, share ideas with individuals from all parts of the world and return with a broader sense of knowledge that will not only benefit them, but also USM and St. Maarten on the whole,” said USM Dean of Academics Rolinda Carter. It is USM’s goal to collaborate with other universities in the Erasmus-plus programme and the participation of its students in these exchanges is a step in that direction.
Another group of five young persons will travel to Kalamata, Greece, on September 11 for Youth Exchange on “Inclusion of Migrants in Hosting Societies.”
For further information on future training opportunities, follow the Caribbean Education and Culture Foundation, and/or SXM Youth Council on Facebook.
Further information about Erasmus-plus programmes is available at
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/ .
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/80349-three-to-bulgaria-for-training-course
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